


5 Times Lance Accidentally Confessed His Love for Keith (and One Time Keith Did)

by sppacecowboyy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1 Things, Dorks in Love, Falling In Love, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, Jealousy, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Underage Drinking, oblivious dorks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-07-01 10:38:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15772419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sppacecowboyy/pseuds/sppacecowboyy
Summary: the title sums it up pretty well, i have nothing to add here <3





	1. The One Where Lance Talks in His Sleep

"Who let Shiro come up with the roommate arrangements anyway?"

"Aww, cheer up, Keith! It'll be fun, Hunk tell him."

Keith stopped mid-step just to give Lance a good firm glare, which only seemed to make Lance smile wider. A step or two behind them Keith heard Hunk telling him, and he could visualize the grin on Hunk's face when he heard his voice, "Yeah, Lance is a great roommate."

To which Lance replied, "Thanks, buddy!"

"He does talk in his sleep, though," Hunk added.

"Less thanks, buddy!"

"I'm not surprised, you're always talking when you're awake, why should sleep be any different."

He wasn't actually that annoyed with how much Lance talked, or annoyed to be rooming with Lance--okay well maybe a little, but it had more to do with Shiro's ulterior motives after a  _private conversation_ than it did finding Lance annoying. Keith'll think twice next time he wants to use the word 'crush' with Shiro--but despite neither of them actually disliking each other anymore, if they ever really did, the chance to push Lance's buttons was just too tempting. They'd reached a nonverbal agreement about that. Keith wasn't sure exactly when it happened, but somewhere along the line all their taunting remarks and fighting had become friendly joking and play fighting.

Keith grinned when Lance slung an arm across his shoulders and declared, "I can give you a face mask, we can gossip about past crushes. It'll be like a sleepover."

Rather than fixate on the irony of Lance wanting to talk about crushes with him, or the arm over his shoulders, Keith rolled his eyes with a light chuckle. He glanced over at the numbers on the doors in the hall they were supposed to be counting and said with disinterest, "I wouldn't know, never been to a sleepover."

"Well that just does it!" The weight of Lance's arm across Keith's shoulders disappeared as he moved to (overdramatically) throw his hands up in the air, coming to a sudden halt in the middle of the hallway. He spun on his heel to look at the rest of the team behind them and then announced, "Guys, we're giving Keith the authentic sleepover experience. I'm talking bad movies, nail painting, popcorn, the works. Who's in?"

"That's a great idea, Lance," Shiro said, like a traitor, an amused sort of smile on his face. "But it'll have to wait 'till after this mission, we have to be up early tomorrow."

"Boooooo!" Pidge gave Shiro a scowl and a thumbs down.

Shiro laughed and shook his head, then turned to look at the doors lining the hallways. "I think this is us, Coran."

"Well, goodnight everybody." Coran waved to the group and, to the chorus of goodnights that were returned to him, he and Shiro headed off into their room. Allura and Romelle were in the one next door, both of whom insisted on hugging Pidge, Hunk, and then Lance--they tried to hug Keith, but he claimed not to be a hugger--goodnight before vanishing into their own room.

Hunk and Pidge hung around to crack jokes in the hallway for a little while, but eventually the group split off to their rooms across the hall from each other. When they found the right number, Lance actually held the door for him. 

The room was nicer than Keith had been expecting. The team was in California to help with the repair efforts after getting rid of the Galra invaders, and they were staying in a hotel just outside the area for the time being. Sure the rooms weren't perfect, the left wall had a crack spidering up it and so did the window, which had no curtains. Actually when Keith tried the switch, the lights wouldn't even turn on. But there were two beds, both with more than three pillows and cozy looking quilts atop them. And the light from the full moon outside filtered through the tinted window glass, washing everything in a faintly purple glow.

All of which Keith had to take in later, because the door had only been shut for about a tic before Lance said, "Dibs on the left one!" and made a dive for the bed on the left side of the room.

The mattress and Lance both bounced as he landed face first, and the bedframe shook a little with the sudden impact. Lance spread his arms out at his sides, like he was trying to take up as much space of the thing as he could. He said, voice muffled by the blankets, "Oh my god, dude, I was so tired. Also, this is way comfier than the beds at the Garrison."

"And you wonder why people call you dramatic," Keith said, feeling a smile pull at the corners of his lips. He dropped his bag at the foot of the bed on the right and sat down on the mattress, which was both softer than he'd expected and not as soft as Lance made it out to be, and went to unlace his boots.

A moment or so later and they'd both changed into their pajamas--Lance was fairly excited to point out the shark pattern on his pants to Keith, apparently they were the ones he slept in back in high school, and his family had snuck them into him back when he was staying at the hospital. It was, admittedly, kind of adorable how he got so happy just talking about pajama pants, or his family.

"You're family seems nice," Keith said, slipping under the pile of blankets on his bed. "Y'know your niece visited my room at the hospital."

If the look on Lance's face was anything to go by, he didn't actually know that. He smiled, tilting his head to the side a little like a confused puppy. "Nadia visited you?"

"I...don't think she gave me her name, come to think of it," Keith said with a frown. He shrugged and said, "She brought me snickerdoodles, said I earned them."

"Nadia," Lance repeated with a little nod and a proud smile. Then the smile faltered infinitesimally, and Lance looked up at Keith with renewed interest to ask, "Did you guys talk or anything?"

Keith thought he knew the reason Lance was asking, solely because yes, they did talk for awhile. When she'd brought him the snickerdoodles she'd said something along the lines of "Uncle Lance is the coolest person ever, and he says you're cool, so you must be cool." Keith wasn't sure if he was reading into things a little too much or if that slight panic he'd caught in Lance's expression when he asked the question was because he'd been talking about Keith to Nadia and didn't want her telling him anything. It was surprisingly nice to think about Lance telling his family about Keith.

He shrugged and said, "Not much."

A hint of relief flickered across Lance's face, then he leaned back against his pillows and said, "That's a shame, she tells the best knock knock jokes."

"I'm sure if knock knock jokes could even be funny, hers would be the funniest," Keith said, breathing out a soft sigh and leaning back as well. He sat back up again to rearrange his pillows at least three times.

"Shut your mouth, they're so funny. Here, I have a good one. You start."

"I don't want to hear a knock knock joke."

"C'mon, buddy! One joke, then I promise we'll go to sleep. Just start it."

Keith huffed, rolling his head to the side to look over at Lance. He was smiling expectantly, and even though Keith was sure the joke couldn't possibly be funny, he couldn't bring himself to say no. Which was just as well because, knowing Lance, he wouldn't have stopped trying until Keith relented. "Alright, fine, one knock knock joke," he said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Knock knock."

"Who's there?" Lance said, his grin widening.

A long moment of silence followed, both of them waiting. Keith wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to say, and it took him longer than it maybe should have to realize that  _that_ was the joke. When he did make the connection, he took in a deep breath, pointing an accusatory index finger at Lance and saying, "First of all, how dare you."

The only response Keith got was wild, hysterical laughter. And honestly, the joke was moderately funny, but even funnier was Lance rolling around laughing so hard at his own joke that at one point he had to stop just so he could breath, and then he just started right up again. Which is why, eventually, Keith couldn't stop himself from bursting into laughter with him.

It was only after they'd laughed for an unreasonable amount of time, tears escaping the corners of Keith's eyes he laughed to hard, that they finally quieted down. Keith found that his cheeks and stomach actually hurt a little. He wasn't sure when the last time he'd been able to laugh that hard was. Not that he'd tell Lance as much.

"Told you they were funny," Lance said.

"Goodnight, Lance."

"Night buddy."

The quiet in the room actually felt kind of weird after all the noise it had been filled with before. Keith settled a little more comfortably into his bed, gaze focussed on the ceiling above him.

A few tics later, Keith heard a faint humming to his left. He glanced over at Lance just as Lance began to sing under his breath, "Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?"

"Hey Lance?"

"Sorry, stuck in my head," Lance said. If his voice was anything to go by he was actually starting to get sleepy, but that evidently didn't stop him from wanting to hum along to whatever tune was stuck in his head. "Oh no, not I. I will survive!"

"Not if you keep singing that song you won't," Keith cracked.

He could just make out the hint of a smile on Lance's face when he carried on, progressively louder, "Oh as long as I know how to love I know I'm still alive! And I'll survive. I will survive! Hey, hey!"

Keith hurled an extra pillow at him.

It smacked Lance in the face, and he cut off his singing with a little chuckle, snatching the pillow and tucking it under his arm like a teddy bear. "I'm keeping this."

"Fine, just go to sleep," Keith said, feeling a small laugh building up in his chest. He rolled his eyes and turned to look back at the ceiling. No more than about thirty tics later Lance was actually being quiet, and Keith found himself suppressing the urge to hum I Will Survive under his breath. God damn that catchy music. When Hunk had felt the need to warn Keith that Lance talked in his sleep, he should've been warning him that Lance. can't. fall. asleep. It might've been endearing if Keith wasn't trying to sleep himself, and if he didn't have Gloria Gaynor stuck in his head now.

Lance started about three more conversations before eventually drifting off to sleep: once to ask Keith if he'd liked the snickerdoodles Aleja brought him (Keith had liked them a lot, actually), once humming I Will Survive again, and once to announce, "In the end we're all yote. You either yeet yourself, or get yoten." Which. Was a weird quiznacking thing to say.

The room was quiet for awhile after that, and honestly Keith should've been able to fall asleep. He probably should've been able to fall asleep even with Lance's talking; they'd had a busy day the day before, and Keith couldn't deny he was tired. But the mattress was too soft, and he had too many pillows. It felt wrong, and he couldn't convince his head that it wasn't. But he didn't feel as frustrated by it as he should be. As it was, he was kind of content just to watch the shadows pass along the wall whenever a late night car passed by, and listen to the birds outside.

Awhile later, he learned that Hunk wasn't just joking around when he mentioned that Lance talks in his sleep.

Most of it was just strings of unintelligible gibberish, though, not even real words as far as Keith knew. He found himself trying not to laugh the first couple of times, because honestly none of Lance's sleep talk made sense and it was both funny and adorable. Every now and then he could make out the occasional real word, and sometimes Lance would say  _something_ in Spanish, which Keith had no hope of understanding. It was probably also just nonsense, though.

Which is why it took him a second to register when, some time after that, Lance said anything that actually made grammatical sense. And once he did Keith wasn't sure he'd heard him right. Voice slightly muffled by the pillow Lance mumbled, "Love you."

Keith risked a glance over at Lance.

He'd rolled over onto his side in his sleep, and he had one leg tucked up towards him; the other shot straight out, his foot sticking out at the edge of the blankets. The sleep mask he wore to bed had been shoved up onto his forehead, pushing his hair back, and he was hugging one of the many pillows to his chest. Keith tried and failed to convince himself it wasn't somewhat adorable.

He was just beginning to think he'd heard Lance's sleep gibberish wrong when a moment later Lance said again, "I love you."

"Who do you love?"

Keith wasn't really expecting a reply. He'd had conversations with people who talked in their sleep before--namely Shiro--but they only sometimes answered, and even more rare was getting an answer that made any sort of sense. Still, his curiosity got the better of him, and he didn't really see what it could hurt to ask. For all he knew, Lance was dreaming about garlic knots. Or the band ABBA. 

"Me?" Lance's voice replied, like he needed to clarify who the question was directed at. Keith hadn't decided whether to answer or not before Lance shifted slightly, pulling his other leg up as well, knocking one of the blankets onto the floor with the motion. Keith thought he might've imagined the sleepy smile on his face. Lance's voice was barely audible when he said, "I love Keith."

"I--You do?"

But the moment was gone, he didn't get another reply.

He wasn't sure what he would've done with it, had he been given one. He wasn't sure what to do with the one response he'd already been given. Was Keith, in fact, dreaming or did Lance just say he loved him? He was asleep, sure. It might not mean anything at all. People say weird things in their sleep. They also most definitely don't mean everything they say in their sleep, they're not aware they're even saying it. Still, Keith had heard with his own two ears Lance saying that he loved him. Keith was going to spontaneously combust.

He shook his head and turned to look back at the ceiling. A tic later he glanced back over at Lance, he couldn't help it. He felt an infinitesimal smile pulling at the corners of his lips, one that he did his damndest to suppress, despite there being no one around to see it.

He spent a little while longer just staring at the ceiling, fidgeting in an attempt to get comfortable in that strange room and strange bed. But not long after that, Keith drifted into an easy sleep.

The sun coming up in the morning didn't wake Keith like it normally would have. Instead, Keith was awoken to the sound of Lance's voice, incessantly crowing that it was time to get up. Keith growled and buried his face in his pillow, tugging the blanket up to cover his face. He wasn't usually this difficult to get out of bed in the morning. He imagined not being able to sleep last night might have contributed to that.

Lance was quiet for a moment, and then Keith was hit in the face with a barrage of pillows. Well, more like two pillows. But he was allowed to be overdramatic that early in the morning. "C'mon, Mullet, we're gonna be late."

"Time is a construct," Keith grumbled into the pillow.

"You sound like Pidge."

Keith didn't answer, or make any movement to get out of bed. Lance's well thought out and considerate response was to yank Keith's blankets off of him, saying with a laugh, "Alright, Sunshine, time to get going."

"What the hell!"

Keith jolted up, if only to glare at Lance and snatch the blanket back from him. Now that his eyes were actually open, he noticed that Lance was already dressed, and his hair looked wet, like he'd just showered. Which, damn, how late did Keith sleep in. Usually he was the one telling everyone else to get up because they had stuff to do. Also, Lance's hair looked curlier when it was wet and it was beautiful. Besides the point.

Lance just shrugged at Keith's outrage and said, "You're lucky it's me. If it was Veronica waking you up, she'd've flipped you right off your mattress. Trust me, not fun."

"I bet."

 --

The team all met up for breakfast in the hotel lobby. Lance took the seat next to Keith's despite there being one available over by Pidge and Allura, and Keith tried not to read into that too much. Romelle took the seat a moment later. Hunk was next to hear, and across from him was Coran. Shiro sat at Keith's other side, looking about as tired as Keith had felt earlier in the morning. He wondered if maybe Coran was an even more talkative roommate than Lance was.

The breakfast the hotel was serving that morning had the option of eggs, blueberry waffles (Lance was ecstatic, apparently those were a favorite of his), and bacon. It still felt weird; having the option to eat _E_ _arth_ food.

"Can we go over the schedule again?" Keith asked, tentatively reaching for the glass of orange juice he'd been given. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had a glass of orange juice.

"Today we're meeting with some of the people who've been running the rebuilding efforts in the city," Shiro said. "We'll be helping out some with the construction side of things, but there's also the humanities work. Hunk, I think the folks staying in the shelters will be delighted to have some of your cooking this week."

"And I'll be delighted to cook for them." Hunk's smile was sunshine personified.

"I'm curious about Earth food," Romella said, poking the scrambled eggs in front of her with a fork, as if expecting them to sprout legs and sprint away. Then she turned to Hunk and said, "D'you think you could teach me a little?"

"Yeah, I could do that."

"Tomorrow we're hosting the blood drive, correct?" Allura asked. Shiro nodded and she said, "I know us Alteans can't actually donate, but I look forward to helping in whatever way I can."

"I don't, needles are terrifying. And sitting there watching them take your blood out? Yuck," Hunk stuck his tongue out with an expression of disgust and shook his head. The show of being grossed out aside, Keith knew Hunk planned on donating at the drive all the same.

"Don't worry, buddy," Lance said around a mouthful of waffle. He paused a second to chew and then added, "I'll be right there with ya the whole time. And I definitely won't let them give your blood to any underground vampire organizations."

"That really means so much to me."

They all laughed, including Hunk, who's nerves seemed temporarily assuaged. It wouldn't be the first time Lance was able to talk someone out of freaking out. Actually, sometimes Keith was a little jealous of how good at it he seemed to be. He always seemed to know right when to be serious, and when to lighten the mood with a (bad) joke. Whereas Keith was lucky if he could even figure out  _why_ a person was stressed or upset, let alone figure out how to help them out.

He was broken out of his train of thought when Lance nudged him a little with his elbow, leaning over to say, "Hey, Keith. Did you hear about that nurse who wrote down the wrong blood type on their patient's chart?"

"I--No...?"

"They thought it was a Type A, but it was just a Type O."

He punctuated that terrible pun with a wink and finger guns. Because of course he did.

Keith didn't want to laugh at that joke, on account of it wasn't even remotely funny and also he had an image to maintain. But Lance had that slightly expectant, mostly smug grin on his face, and he kept nudging Keith murmuring "Do you get it? D'you?" and Keith imagined that Lance wouldn't quit until he got some response at least. And Keith found himself laughing a little under his breath, shaking his head and telling Lance, "Yes, I get it. I hate it."

Lance laughed at that, and Keith wished he had a camera. Lance's smile, not the smug one anymore but a genuine one, white teeth flashing, hair still curlier than usual. And was it Keith's imagination, or had Lance gotten more freckles since they started spending time on Earth? Either way, it would've made a great picture.

"Hey Keith," Pidge said, throwing a corner of napkin at him to get his attention. She didn't wait for a response to say, "Did Lance say anything dumb last night?"

"You mean besides his usual stuff?" Keith asked, shooting a little smirk in Lance's direction.

Lance punched his shoulder, then turned to Pidge and Hunk. "I don't talk in my sleep that much. I say maybe one or two things, c'mon."

"You wouldn't really know, would you. Y'know, being asleep and all," Hunk said.

"Fair enough, I guess," Lance said with a slight frown. Then he turned back to Keith and said, "Keith! Tell them I don't talk in my sleep that much."

"They roomed with you longer than I did," Keith pointed out. Then, because Lance was looking at him, he added, "But I guess you don't talk  _that much_. Just a couple monologues, maybe a full length speech or two."

"Traitor."

"Once I heard you say, and I quote, 'Fuck you, Iverson. You owe me a quarter.' And then, like, a whole string of Spanish," Pidge said, telling the story like it was the funniest thing she could think of. Which, it kind of was, when Keith pictured it. "You're telling me there were no gems like that last night?"

Keith remembered the brief conversation he'd had with Lance while he slept last night. Actually, it all felt so long ago. And kind of not real. Then he glanced over at Lance, who looked uncertain waiting for Keith to answer. He wasn't sure if Lance was just worried he'd said something embarrassing in general, or if maybe he had some memory of whatever dream his brain had conjured up that made him say he loved  _Keith_ in his sleep, and thought he might've said it out loud. In his defense, he did. Keith felt a slight smile trying to fight it's way onto his face, then he turned back to Pidge with a slight shrug and said, "Just gibberish. A little Spanish."

"Boooring."

"You're just jealous you don't know Spanish," Lance said. And was it Keith's imagination, or did Lance seem a little relieved?

"Yeah, well you can't code," Pidge said.

"I can code! Kinda," Hunk said.

And with that the conversation moved on to other, non-Lance centered subjects. Keith found his gaze kept drifting back towards Lance out of the corner of his eyes. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, exactly. Something about looking at Lance felt a little different now.

Realistically he knew the sleep revelation probably didn't mean anything. But it was kind of nice to think it was possible.


	2. The One Where Lance Gets Space Drunk

Diplomatic missions always were Keith's least favorite.

It wasn't that he particularly enjoyed being shot at all the time--although maybe he kind of liked the thrill of all those fights they got in--it was just that he hated diplomacy. Hated the formality of meetings with the Big Cheeses, as Lance put it, of wherever they went through. All that fancy talk and politeness just wasn't Keith's style. Spending who knew how long wearing an alien culture's fancy dress attire and pretending to be someone he wasn't just got on Keith's nerves a little. Also they tended to be boring as all get out. 

The suit he was stuck wearing, which looked vaguely reminiscent of 20th century Earth's only scarlet red with some sort of bohemian pattern embroidered on it, was far from comfortable. It felt stiff, and Keith got the impression the sleeves would tear right off at the shoulders if he tried to throw a punch in the thing. Not to mention the material was just thick enough to make him slightly too warm, but if he took the jacket off he would be cold.

His only consolation was that Lance was sitting right next to him, wearing a suit of similar design only a cobalt blue. He didn't seem uncomfortable in it at all, and the bastard even looked somewhat fashionable, with the sheer crimson shawl type thing he wore tossed over one shoulder. Apparently even in alien fashion he looked amazing. Asshole.

"I don't see how attending this gala is going to help anyone," Keith said under his breath. "Wouldn't Voltron's time be better spent elsewhere?"

"Chillax, Keith, they're glad be helped them out. They wanna thank us," Lance said, nudging Keith's shoulder placatingly. Keith hated that it worked. Lance took a sip from whatever the hell it was in his glass, then set it back and added, "Besides man, you deserve a break. We've been pretty busy lately, and I  _know_ you don't know how to relax. It's okay to enjoy yourself once in awhile, y'know."

"I know how to relax," Keith grumbled. But even he knew he sounded like a petulant toddler when he said it, so he doubted Lance was convinced.

Lance chuckled and shook his head. Then he asked Pidge to pass him something. He took the pitcher she offered him, and gestured towards Keith with it. "C'mon man, try this soda. The Shymalites made it special for us, to try and replicate the Earth recipe."

"I don't like soda," Keith said.

"Of course you don't. I'm gonna get you to have fun, whether you like it or not," Lance said, pouring himself a glass and then passing it back in Pidge's direction. He leaned back in his seat then, surveying the room in front of them. Keith followed his gaze, lacking anything else to do.

It was a big room, with arching ceilings and giant pillars with a marble texture and a sapphire color. The lights scattered about the room, tiny glowing white ones, hovering at different heights like fireflies. Pidge had been very excited when she saw them, in fact she was currently rambling with one of their hosts about how they powered the lights and got them to hover like that.

About ten tables were scattered around the edges of the room; the one Keith and the rest of them were sat on was on some sort of high rise overlooking the room, for guests of honor and the local royalty. And at the center of the room there was a circular, white dance floor, the outskirts of which were decorated with some sort of gold colored tile. At one side there was a collection of instruments, one of which resembled a piano in a weird sort of way, and the rest Keith couldn't even begin to fathom. A live band was playing music for people to dance to, and next to them was a Shymalite with violet colored hair, singing a sort of melody into the microphone.

After a tic Lance said, "I know! Why don't you ask someone to dance?" He paused for a second, then added as an afterthought, almost like he didn't want to say it, "The Shymalite chicks'll dig you, I bet you could ask anyone in this room and they'd say yes."

Keith thought about telling Lance he didn't care what  _any_ chicks had to say about him, even the Shymalite ones. Or that there was really only one 'yes' in the room he cared about getting. Instead he just huffed, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded over his chest, not so much as looking at any of the people in the room Lance thought would jump at the chance to dance with him. "Think I'll pass."

And was it just wishful thinking, or did Lance look relieved?

"You're determined to make this Making Sure You Have Fun thing hard on me, aren't you?"

"Guess so." Keith's tone was more sour than he'd intended for it to be. He noticed his leg was bouncing under the table, with pent up energy.

"I always did enjoy a good challenge," Lance said with a shrug, unphased by Keith's persisting pessimism. Ever the optimist. That hint of a smile on his face was almost enough to make Keith's leg stop bouncing. Almost. Lance took another sip of his alien soda, then turned to Keith with a skeptical look on his face, scanning him up and down. Keith didn't know what he was looking for, but he felt suddenly self conscious. "Tell me, besides silently brooding and doing cool but dangerous piloting stunts, what does Keith Kogane think is fun?"

It struck Keith that, even after all the time they'd spent together, they didn't really know one another all that well.

That wasn't entirely true. They knew the things that were important; Keith knew that Lance was one of the best strategist's he'd ever met, and that he was an endlessly compassionate soul, who seemed to be able to find a joke for just about any situation. He knew Lance was a good shot, knew he loved his family, and that he was fiercely loyal to and willing to do just about anything to protect literally anyone he met. He knew Lance was brave beyond belief, and far more intelligent than someone might guess. Hell, he knew Lance always sang whatever song was stuck in his head. And he knew that one grin he got on his face every time he was about to say something stupid. But despite knowing all that, he didn't really know Lance. He didn't know his favorite food, or favorite color. Didn't know what t.v. shows Lance liked to watch, or whether he watched t.v. at all.

It was weird to think he knew he could trust Lance with his life, and yet he didn't know whether or not he liked milk in his coffee. He knew he was willing to die for Lance, but he had no idea whether he preferred dogs to cats. Or if he wore his socks to bed. Or if he preferred summer to winter, or spring to fall. Not that any of it mattered. Knowing any of that wouldn't change how Keith felt about him, it wasn't necessarily important information. But then, that was exactly why it did matter. Because it was  _him_ , so it was important.

He only realized he'd been too lost in thought to answer the question when Lance gave a small hum and said, "Very informative. Thank you."

"Sorry, I was just..." Keith trailed off, letting the explanation die before it even came out.

Lance sighed knowingly, which kind of surprised Keith, and gave a small nod. "It's been awhile, right?"

Keith hadn't even thought of that, but now that Lance pointed it out, he was right. They'd been so busy for so long, and Keith knew he had a problem with thinking of anything else when he was preoccupied. Since Shiro went missing on the Kerberos mission, Keith couldn't remember there being a day he just took for himself, to do something he thought was fun just because he wanted to have fun. He mirrored Lance's sigh and said, "Yeah. I guess it has."

"I get you, man. Gaming with Pidge and the Castle's swimming pool were the closest thing I found to my old hobbies," Lance said, with a small laugh. "What I really missed was surfing with Veronica and Marco. And aerial with Rachel. Oh! And my guitar."

"You play guitar?"

"Well I tried when we were back on Earth, turns out I forgot most of the chords." Lance seemed more disappointed with the thought than Keith would've expected. He'd never thought of knowing an instrument as all that important. He'd taken a couple of piano lessons when he was younger, but he wasn't really bothered at the thought he probably couldn't remember them. But then Lance's face brightened again and he said, "I can still play a couple songs though. I bet I'll pick it up again once I have time to practice, y'know? Hey, I bet I could teach you something when we get home. If you want."

Keith had no inclination to learn an instrument, and if anything Lance just told him true he wouldn't make the best teacher. Still, he kind of liked the idea of Lance teaching him to play.

But he didn't say as much to Lance. Mostly because he preoccupied with the line of thought from earlier, about how they didn't know much about one another. And Lance had just told Keith two things about him, two things Keith absolutely adored. (He loved the image of Lance going surfing with his siblings. He wasn't sure what the hell aerial was, though.) He was preoccupied one, because he desperately wanted to know more. But two, because he felt like he owed Lance some similar information. Coming up at a blank of any hobbies he partook in, Keith blurted out without much thought, "I stole Shiro's car once."

Lance almost spat out the sip of soda he'd been taking, then turned to Keith with wide eyes and said, "You did what?"

Honestly, that was a pretty fair reaction.

"I drew a blank, that was the first Earth thing I thought of," Keith said, realizing the random confession might not make much sense to Lance. Who was he kidding, of course it didn't. But Lance's shocked, confused expression was exaggerated to the point of being comical, and Keith found himself smiling. "Yeah, the day we met. I stole his car, and he got me out of juvie. And a spot in the Garrison."

"But why did you steal his car?"

Keith shrugged. "I was a pretty angry and impulsive kid."

"It's cute you're using past tense."

He wanted to be offended, but Lance had just called him cute, so he didn't really have the heart to be. Lance laughed and shook his head, adding, "No but I can definitely see that happening. Shiro's just the kind of guy to see a kid steal his car, and decide to take him under his wing."

"Yeah," Keith hummed in agreement. Then, more to himself than Lance, he said, "I definitely wouldn't be  _here_ if it weren't for Shiro."

"What? Here at this gala you think is boring?"

Keith laughed at the joke despite himself, smacking Lance in the shoulder. Lance laughed along with him. When they were done laughing he shook his head and said, "Shut up, you know what I mean. Here. A member of Voltron. With more family than I've ever had in my life. And finding my mom is definitely a part of that, but it's not just her. Y'know?"

Lance nodded, a smile on his face. It was smaller than the one a moment before, but Keith got the feeling it held much more meaning behind it.

And he had just opened his mouth to say something in response when they were interrupted, as a figure showed up just in the corner of Keith's peripheral vision. They both turned to see one of the Shymalite women standing at the edge of their table. She had forrest green hair, and the freckles that were smattered across her nose were all different shades of blue and purple. The dress she wore was a flowy violet thing, wrapping around one shoulder and trailing off her arm almost like a waterfall. He recognized her as the youngest of the Shymalite King's daughters. Definitely not Keith's type, but definitely beautiful. And a princess. He tried not to show how annoyed he was that that meant she was exactly someone else he knew's type.

She leaned down to be eye to eye with them, putting her elbow on the table and resting her head in her hand. She spoke to Lance and said, "Hi there. It's Lance, right? I'm--"

"Princess Luxa," Lance said, charming as ever. "It's so nice to meet you."

The princess giggled, despite nothing Lance said having been funny, or a joke. Keith's grip tightened on his spoon. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and feigned bashfulness. "You're too kind. Anyway, I actually came over here to ask if you'd be interested in sharing a dance with me?"

Lance looked...surprised. A little flustered maybe, like he wasn't sure how to respond. Keith would've thought he'd have leapt at the opportunity to go and dance with a beautiful princess. Lance shot Keith a look out of the corner of his eye that Keith only caught because he was hyper focused on Lance, despite how much he was pretending not to be. Then he looked back to the princess and said, still charming as hell, "You know, Princess, I really would love to. But I kinda made my buddy here a promise, so I can't go anywhere 'till he starts having fun."

Lance gestured lightly to Keith, who hoped the pure shock on his face wasn't too obvious. Did Lance just say no to a girl--no, to a princess, and a beautiful one at that, who wanted to dance with him? Because he wanted to spend time with Keith?

No, it couldn't actually be that. It couldn't be that Lance actually preferred Keith's company to Princess Luxa's, he probably just felt bad because he knew Keith wasn't having a good time at the gala, and Lance was nothing if not compassionate. He'd have probably rejected her all the same if it were Pidge or Hunk, or even a complete stranger, who he thought was in need of some cheering up. And as much as Keith liked the idea of Lance spending the whole gala talking to him, he couldn't let him miss out just because Keith was a wet blanket. So he elbowed Lance's arm and said with a false lightness, "I'm cool, Lance, are you kidding? Go and dance with the princess."

Lance blinked at Keith, raising an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Of course I am," Keith said. "C'mon, I want you to. Go have fun."

"Yeah, come have fun," Luxa said, and Keith didn't like the tone in her voice to say the least. She straightened up and took a backwards step away from the table, gesturing with an index finger for Lance to follow. "Your friend'll be fine. Come and dance with me."

And with one last hesitant look at Keith, Lance downed the rest of his soda and followed Princess Luxa to the dance floor.

Keith watched them dance for a little while, until it got to be a little too much and he had to find a distracting. From where Keith was sitting, it looked like the princess was all hands on the dance floor. And she kept leaning into Lance's personal space to whisper things in his ear, and Keith could only imagine what she was saying, especially when Lance threw his head back and laughed. So with a huff he turned to Pidge, starting up a conversation with her in the hopes it would help him ignore the dance floor in front of him.

\--

Not too long after that, Keith came to the conclusion that he was really happy he'd decided to pass on that weird alien soda. At the time his only reasoning had been that he wasn't much of a soda drinker--he said it with a false sense of superiority, for someone who mostly drank those trashy energy drinks--but he was starting to think that might've been an even better decision than he'd thought.

"Are you...tipsy?" he asked.

"No, I'm Lance."

The stupid joke in and of itself didn't contribute to much of a conclusion; sober Lance was equally not funny. However, the genuine confusion on his face combined with the way his words were almost but not quite slurred was enough of an answer for Keith. He took the glass of soda from Lance's hand to look at it, as if that would tell him anything, then looked back up at Lance.

Setting the glass down on the table, just out of Lance's reach, he said, "Lance, I think that soda is alcoholic."

"If it is, then why aren't the Shmymalatians drunk? Hm? Check and mate."

Keith just started blankly at Lance's horrendous butchering of the word Shymalite. He doubted he had the patience, if Lance really was as tipsy as he seemed, to explain that an alien race wouldn't get drunk on the same substances humans did. He leaned forward to drag Pidge into the conversation, saying, "Pidge! Have you tried the soda?"

"Have I tried the soda," Pidge repeated. "Dude, the soda's great. I think it might not be soda, though."

"Mmhm, it's alcoholic, right?"

Pidge nodded. "Most definitely."

"Yeah, Lance had like five glasses."

"Six," Lance corrected, reaching across Keith to pick his glass up from where Keith had left it on the surface of the table. He took a dainty sip from it and said, "Lance had like six glasses."

Keith sighed. "Will you put that down?"

"Make me."

Pidge snorted, reaching forward to inspect her own glass. Keith doubted whether she'd had more than two or three of them, but she didn't seem bothered by the fact they were alcoholic. She took a long, slow sip from her glass and then said deliberately, "I guess Lance can't hold his liquor."

"I  _am_ holding it, right now."

"Not like tha--It's pointless," Keith said, sighing. He turned back to Pidge and asked, "Do Hunk and Shiro know?"

Sure, Shiro was old enough to drink. But Keith's issue wasn't with whether or not they would technically be allowed to drink it on Earth. He just thought if someone was going to be getting drunk, they ought to at least know they're doing it. Unlike Lance, who hadn't realized until it was too late, and who stubbornly refuses to realize now that it was too late.

Pidge laughed and said, "Yeah. Hunk's a little buzzed, that's how we figured it out."

"What? And you didn't think to tell Lance?"

"Honestly it...slipped my mind."

Keith was about to answer her when Allura approached their end of the table. She gave a small nod to Keith in greeting, then turned and said, "Oh, Pidge! I was looking for you. The King's advisor wants to meet you, they have some questions about the stealth modifications you invented. I can introduce you."

"Only if I can ask them about their technique for programming functionally sentient A.I. systems--" Pidge started excitedly, already halfway out of her seat before the sentence even finished. Then she paused and glanced back at Lance, who was reaching for the pitcher to pour more soda, and Keith, who was trying to stop him from reaching the pitcher and pouring more soda. She said, oddly softly, "Take care of him."

Keith looked up from swatting Lance's arm away and said, "Yeah. I got him."

That out of the way, Pidge scampered off with Allura to go talk nerd stuff with the Shymalite advisor.

"Hey, Keith," Lance said, poking his arm to get his attention. It was a futile attempt, he already had Keith's attention. He almost always did. "Why're you so frirked about the drinks being the fun kind?"

Keith blinked. "Frirked?"

"Was gonna say frustrated but it was too long, so I wanted to say irked instead, but it was too late."

Fair enough.

"Well I'm not  _frirked_ ," Keith said, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms over his chest. "I'm just trying to look out for you. I don't get the impression you know how to drink responsibly, especially since you didn't even know you were drinking."

"I was drinking soda."

Keith just sighed, smacking his palm into his face. It was a little over dramatic, sure, but he was allowed to be over dramatic. He thought he'd earned as much. "Alcoholic alien soda."

"Frirked," Lance repeated, an infuriatingly smug smile written across his face.

Admittedly, he was torn between being annoyed and amused. He couldn't exactly be mad at Lance; Lance probably should've noticed there was something up with the soda before getting as drunk as he was already, but it wasn't necessarily his fault the Shymalites got the wrong recipe. Plus he was self aware enough to realize he was a little more irritable after Lance went off to dance with that princess--again something he couldn't even blame Lance for, since he'd told him he wanted him to go. He shook his head and elected, for the time being at least, to just not engage.

Lance frowned at Keith's lack of response, leaning into his personal space and poking Keith's cheek with an index finger. Keith bit back the impulse to laugh, keeping a stony look staring straight forward. Lance poked him a few more times and said, "Bet Princess Luxa would think you're frirked."

Keith turned to look at him maybe a little too quickly, snapping, "Why would I care about Princess Luxa's opinion on anything?"

Sometimes Keith forgot that, while Lance was often very emotionally intuitive and could tell you what you were feeling before you even knew it, or knew exactly what you needed to hear when you were feeling it; he also somehow had a talent for pushing Keith's buttons, and only part of the time was it even on purpose.

His tone had made it clear he thought the comment would get Keith's attention--although Keith didn't have a clue how or why he knew that, Lance couldn't have known bringing up the princess would frustrate Keith. He especially couldn't have known why. But it was clear from the way he flinched back ever so slightly, a wide eyed expression on his face, that he hadn't expected it would get Keith's attention exactly the way it did.

With a huff, Keith leaned back, folding his arms across his chest and said, "Sorry Lance. I guess I'm just not in the best mood tonight. I didn't mean to snap at you, it's not your fault."

"What? No! You're s'pposed to be having fun!" Lance seemed utterly distraught at the revelation. "I promised!"

"It was a lost cause anyway," Keith said, shrugging lightly.

Objectively, Lance looked even more offended by that than Keith had ever seen him look before. Apparently his melodramatic tendencies didn't get any better when he was drunk. Keith didn't know why he was surprised.

Lance put his hands onto Keith's shoulders, turning him around to face him with slightly more force than was strictly necessary. Then he took Keith's cheeks in his hands, so that Keith had no choice but to look at him. Lance looked directly into Keith's eyes, as if he was trying to stare into his very soul, an unnecessarily intense look in his eye. Keith got the feeling he was trying to convey something with just the look, but whatever it was he wasn't getting it. The proximity was starting to make Keith's hands sweat a little, though, so as much as he would love to stare into those ocean eyes forever, he hoped Lance would say whatever he wanted to say and return to his own personal bubble.

As if reading Keith's mind--he had an uncanny ability, Keith thought--Lance said, "Keith. My buddy. My man. My friend. My pal. You are never, ever,  _never_ a lost cause. Ever never ever. Not to me. Got it?"

Keith blinked.

He had no idea how to respond to that, honestly. There was something in Lance's eyes that told him that the statement, at least in Lance's mind, was an irrefutable one. And that it would stay that way, he felt, forever. At the very least, it wasn't something that would change when Lance was sober. Keith was suddenly overcome with some emotion he couldn't find the words for, and he really hoped Lance would release his face soon.

Apparently Lance misinterpreted Keith's silence as disbelief, though, because he repeated, "Keith? Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it," Keith managed, the corners of his mouth pulling up into the tiniest of smiles. Lance practically beamed, with a smile that stretched all the way across his face. After a couple of tics of Lance just smiling at him, Keith said, "Can I have my face back now?"

"Right, sorry," Lance said, patting his cheek twice and took his hands away.

"Thanks."

Keith turned to face forward once again, grabbing his glass of water and taking a sip. He found he couldn't help but keep glancing back over at Lance out of the corner of his eye. Lance looked like he was trying to take a nap, his arms folded on the table in front of him, and his face hidden in the crook of his elbow. Keith cleared his throat, and Lance cracked one eye open, raising an eyebrow and looking over at Keith.

Frowning, Keith said, "Hey, uh...Hey Lance?"

"Yeah, buddy?" Lance answered, lifting his head up off of his arms.

"Why do you care so much?"

The way he tilted his head a little to the side, almost like a confused puppy, was a little too cute than anyone had any right to be. Lance sat up the rest of the way, doing it a little too quickly and nearly throwing his chair off balance. When he spoke it was a little too fast, like he was startled by the question and had to answer it as quickly as possible. "About what?"

"Me," Keith said, shrugging. "If I have fun tonight. If I'm  _frirked_ \--stars, that's starting to sound like a real word now--or if I'm, like, a lost cause or whatever. Why d'you care so much?"

"Thought it was obvious," Lance said.

"It's not."

"It's 'cause, because I love you," Lance said. He slunk a little lower in his chair, leaning over and grabbing Keith's arm, resting his head on Keith's shoulder like a pillow. Then he jolted his head up suddenly, looking up at Keith with wide eyes to ask, "I say that out loud?"

Keith blinked at him, not sure he could even respond if he opened his mouth. Eventually he did though, shaking his head slightly and answering, "No. Say what out loud?"

Lance flashed a tired smile, nuzzling his head back into Keith's shoulder with a content little sigh. Keith was glad he didn't need that arm, because he doubted he would have the strength of will to take it away if he did.

Actually, at the moment he doubted he could move at all. Some mixture of shock and disbelief had frozen him. He turned to look down at Lance, because he kind of had to, and he felt his chin brush against Lance's hair. Which only made him think about how this was actually real; Lance was actually sitting next to him, clutching his arm like he might lose it if he let go, and using his shoulder as a pillow. It didn't look like he'd actually fallen asleep yet, and Keith wasn't even sure that he was trying to. Right now it seemed Lance was just content to be holding onto Keith.

Which was...completely ridiculous.

Lance was drunk.

Keith probably shouldn't even be letting him hug his arm. Lance wasn't exactly in his right mind, and Keith shouldn't read into whatever he said or did. If Lance said he loved him that didn't make it true--and if it was true, he probably didn't mean it the way Keith would like him to. Lance had a lot of love in his heart, it was a part of why Keith was so damn smitten. Lance no doubt meant he loved him as a friend, a fellow paladin. People loved their friends and they loved their teammates, generally.

Keith sighed, momentarily tilting his head to the side to rest on Lance's.

They stayed that way for a couple of tics, somehow peaceful despite the festivities going on around them, a moment of being alone together despite at least a hundred people surrounding them. Then Keith lifted his shoulder a couple of times, to shrug Lance awake. It took a few tries before Lance lifted his head up, mumbling, "Hmm? Wha's happenin? Party over?"

"I think you're all partied out," Keith said. "I'm gonna walk you back to your room, okay?"

"I can walk myself," Lance said, starting to get up from his chair. He lost his balance for a moment, but regained it again somewhat quickly.

Keith rolled his eyes, pushing himself up too and tucking his arm through Lance's, to help him balance. He shook his head as they started to walk and said, "Maybe you could, but I care about you getting to your room  _safely_. Besides, mine's next door, so I'm going that way anyway."

"But you never had fun, though."

"It wasn't a total waste," Keith said, not just to appease Lance.

As they made their way out the door of the ballroom, Lance rested his head back on Keith's shoulder. Keith could hear the half smile on his face when he said, "You said you care about me."

"I do care about you."

"Know what that means?"

"No?"

"Means you loooooooove me."

Keith risked a glance down at him, and this time it was a sort of sad smile that he wore. Lance had no idea how unconditionally, irrefutably true that statement was. At this point, Keith wasn't sure he ever would.

\--

Lance was, predictably, the last person to breakfast the morning after the gala.

He and Keith might've been the first ones to leave, but Lance was, to Keith's knowledge at least, experiencing the first hangover of his life. Keith wouldn't have been surprised if he never showed up to breakfast at all. But he did, and while he wasn't nearly as energetic as his usual self, he somehow didn't look like shit. He'd left his hair curly--Keith kind of wished he wouldn't straighten it so often, it was adorable curly. But then the rarity of him wearing it that way made it feel more personal when Keith got to see the curls, like he was being let in on some secret--but it wasn't terribly messy bedhead. And there were no bags under his eyes like Keith was expecting.

Lance did, however, immediately bury his face in his arms on the table when he sat down in the chair between Keith and Hunk. Trying to stifle his laugh so as to keep Lance from hearing it, Keith gave him a pat on the back. "Y'okay there, Lance?"

"Okay? I don't know the meaning of the word," Lance mumbled into his arms. What a drama queen. He sat up and murmured a thanks when Hunk offered him a mug of real actual Earth coffee, but instead of actually drinking from it Lance just wrapped both his hands around it held it up close to his face, breathing in the warmth. After a few tics of sitting there quietly Lance said, "Yep. I think I'm dead."

"You seem pretty alive to me," Shiro said from across the table, a small affectionate laugh decorating the end of his words.

"I was dying, and then I died, and now I'm dead." Lance completely ignored Shiro, pressing his face closer to the coffee mug. It was red with a navy blue stripe. Keith didn't remember ever seeing it before, but the design was distinctly Earth. He closed his eyes and finally took a sip of the coffee. "This is my fateful end. Hunk, Keith, Pidge, Allura, Romelle--wait where's Romelle? Shiro. Coran--no he's not here either. My closest friends. Promise you'll remember me as I was, not as I am."

Allura giggled, then did her best to feign a tearful expression and nodded. "We promise, Lance. Your memory will carry on within on our hearts."

Lance mirrored her nod, then added, "Try not to miss me too terribly, once I meet my demise."

Pidge let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like "Doesn't sound too hard."

But Lance either didn't care, or didn't seem to have heard, because he just carried on in his melodramatic complaining. He sank forward to lean on the table again, keeping the mug in front of his face like some sort of life force the whole time. He took another hesitant sip and said, "I'll miss you all so dearly. Y'know, after I'm dead. Because I'm dying. Right now, as we speak."

"You've literally been caught in an explosion before and you complained less," Keith said.

"It hurt less."

"No it didn't."

"No, it didn't." There were a couple of laughs around the table, and Lance's brows furrowed together into a childish pout. He added, "But I wasn't dying then. And I'm definitely dying now."

"You're impossible."

Lance chuckled, then pushed himself to sit back up again, shifting until one of his legs was propped up on the chair underneath him. Then he picked up the mug again, taking a longer sip. Keith seemed to remember reading somewhere that water was a better cure for a hangover, but Lance seemed so attached to that coffee, he couldn't even dream of telling him to put it down. Besides that, it seemed the more Lance complained the more he woke up. If Keith looked close enough he could see the traces of amusement starting to appear on his face.

"Well whenever you're done being dramatic," Allura said, picking up a plate with a stack of pancakes in front of her and holding it out in Lance's direction. "I saved you some of the banana pancakes Hunk made. Whatever a banana is."

"Allura, you're a goddess!" Lance said, suddenly energetic again as he reached out with two hands to snatch the plate from her.

"Uhm? Let's not forget who  _made_ them?"

"Right, sorry Hunk," Lance said, around a mouthful of pancake. He didn't even use a fork, he just picked one up off the top of the stack and took a bite. Barbarian. Lance gave Hunk a pat on the shoulder and said, "You're a goddess too, buddy."

"Thank you."

"How long have you guys been up, anyway?"

"Not long," Shiro said with a dismissive shrug. He must've been answering for the collective group, though, because Keith had gone on his morning run with Shiro for the first time in ages that morning, so he knew for a fact Shiro had been up since the sunrise. Keith saw that mischievous sort of glint in Shiro's eyes when he looked over at Lance sitting next to Keith--and Keith just knew Shiro had also noticed there were a good three other chairs for Lance to have chosen from--and he started to wonder whether it had been a good idea to tell Shiro earlier about his conversation with Lance last night. "We thought you'd sleep in much later, actually. You were pretty out of it last night, from what I hear."

Lance paused halfway to taking another bite of pancake; the way he just froze with the pancake held up to his face and his mouth wide open, then looked to Shiro and slowly lowered it back to the plate. He scrunched up his nose momentarily and said, "I don't remember much." Then he turned to Keith, raising his eyebrows and added, "I didn't do anything really embarrassing, did I?"

Because of course he didn't remember.

Keith gave a half-assed shrug, shaking his head and answering, "Yeah, you got up on the table and tried to teach the Macarena to everyone in the room. It wasn't so bad, only you got, like, three of the steps wrong."

Lance's eyebrows shot up higher. "I did?"

"No," Keith said, shaking his head with an amused laugh. Reaction like that, he figured the hope he was holding out that Lance was only pretending not to remember was dead. Which only mattered because it meant Lance wasn't really thinking when he'd said it, which meant it was probably just rambling nonsense. It didn't mean anything. Keith tried not to dwell on that too long, pushing the thought aside. He forced a chuckle and added, "Turns out you're kind of a sleepy drunk."

"That's just the soda," Hunk put in. "Made me sleepy too."

"Yeah, but  _you_  weren't the one clinging on to Keith's arm like a koala," Pidge said, not even bothering to hide her laugh or the smug grin on her face.

Keith made sure to shoot her a disapproving glare. Lance looked somewhat mortified for exactly a tic, then he schooled the expression back into a more relaxed one. It was probably only because he was so studied in trying to decipher Lance's moods, but Keith could tell the relaxation was mostly a show. He was either really embarrassed or doing his best to remember everything he'd done last night. Possibly both.

Either way, after he regained his composure Lance answered casually, "Yeah well Keith's arm makes a good pillow. See?"

At that last part Lance threw his arms around Keith's neck in a dramatic hug and put his head on Keith's shoulder, pointedly looking at Pidge while he did so. He must've been mostly doing it as a joke, Keith wasn't really thinking about it because all he could think about was that Lance was right. there. again. But Lance lifted his head up halfway, poking Keith's bicep a couple of times, and said, "Actually you're pretty comfy. I didn't think you would be, cuz you work out so much. People should hug you more."

"I'm not really a hugger," Keith managed. It was entirely untrue.

Lance laughed, pushing away from hugging Keith. He gave him a light, playful punch in the shoulder before returning his attention to the pancakes on the plate in front of him.

Keith had to admit, he was kind of glad when the conversation moved away from him or Lance or last night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol i did a quick edit to tag on some other stuff. idk


	3. The One Where Lance Gets Space Sick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took waaaayyyyy longer than i was hoping lol, sorry <3 anyway here's a little link to a brief one-shot i did connected to this chapter [if i could tell him (how he's everything to me)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15863841) it's not spoiler-y so you could read them in whatever order, if u wanna check it out
> 
> however it is way fluffier than this chapter, cuz this one got kindddaa angsty
> 
> enjoy!

It had been a few days since the gala, and the paladins were on the journey back to Earth once more. Well, Earth was the end destination, but along the way they planned to stop at one more nearby planetoid, and no doubt something else would pop up on the route. A distress signal, or a black hole, or something else equally improbable and dangerous. Never a dull morning in space, after all.

Except that wasn't quite true.

At the moment, Keith had nothing to do. The training room was temporarily closed for maintenance, Krolia was helping the ship's navigator with some sort of anomaly in the map, and Shiro was taking a well deserved nap. Left to his own devices, Keith's mind wandered back to the revelation he'd had at the gala, that he didn't no nearly as much about his teammates (one in particular) as he should, or would like to. Struck with a sudden determination, Keith set out down the halls, with the one goal spending some quality time with the rest of the paladins. Probably not all of them at once. Desire to be a better friend or not, he still didn't like big groups.

He was looking for one of the other paladins, but who he found was Kosmo--he'd relented to calling his wolf friend that for now, if only because the nickname was shorter than referring to him as 'the space wolf' or any variation thereupon.

"Hey, buddy," Keith greeted him, kneeling down on the ground to give the wolf a greeting hug. Big dogs were practically made for hugging, it was an undeniable truth of the universe apparently. But he pulled away after a tic to give Kosmo a confused look, leaning forward again to sniff his fur. His brows furrowed slightly and he said, "Why do you smell like Lance?"

Kosmo just blinked back at him.

He did smell like Lance; more specifically, he smelled like Lance's hair. Some unique mixture of juniberry and coconut, with the faintest hint of ocean air and lavender. And when Keith took a closer look at Kosmo, he noticed that his fur had much more of a shine to it, and had obviously been brushed. There was something akin to a smile in the wolf's expression, like whatever grooming he must have gotten had made him remarkably happy.

Keith had just opened his mouth to say something else, when suddenly Kosmo teleported them to some other room on the ship.

He looked around for a couple of tics before realizing that Kosmo had taken them...to the kitchen? Was he hungry or something? Keith pushed himself back up to his feet, instinctively starting towards the cupboards to grab something for the wolf to eat. Which was when he noticed Lance hovering by the counter, stirring something in that red mug with the blue stripe. Lance looked a little startled when he noticed them, which Keith supposed was fair. Kosmo's smile widened and he ran over to Lance, then ran back over to Keith. He did a couple of energetic laps like that before sitting down on the floor next to Lance's barefeet, staring at Keith, tail wagging back and forth across the tiles.

"Hey, Kosmo," Lance said, leaning down to scratch his ears with an affectionate grin. Then he added, "Hi Keith. Want some tea? We're outta chamomile, but we got green."

"I'm good, thanks," Keith said, leaning one shoulder against the wall. His gaze flickered between Kosmo and Lance, finally landing on Lance. Folding his arms across his chest, he nodded towards where Kosmo was sitting at Lance's feet smiling and said, "Did you give him a bath or something?"

"Hm?" Lance paused, looking up from the mug. It looked like he was stirring honey into it. "Oh, yeah! His fur was getting kinda matted, so I thought...Anyway, he seemed to like it."

As if to confirm the statement, Kosmo's jaw dropped open slightly into a wider smile, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. When his tail wagged, it smacked into Lance's sock covered feet. Keith gave him a small smile back. Then, because it felt like the thing to say, Keith looked at Lance and said, "Thanks."

"Yeah, it was nothing," Lance said, waving a hand dismissively.

Keith wouldn't call it  _nothing_. Sure, giving a wolf a bath definitely wasn't up there on the highest of priorities. And assuming said wolf was cooperative, it wasn't even a difficult task. But Lance had taken the time to notice that Kosmo's fur needed brushing--and if it was starting to mat it couldn't have been bad, because Keith hadn't noticed, and he spent the most time with him. And Lance could've just told Keith to brush Kosmo, or just brushed his fur. He didn't have to give him a whole bath, or one as good as he clearly had. Keith didn't think he'd ever seen Kosmo's fur so shiny. And Kosmo obviously appreciated it, he seemed more fond of Lance than ever.

Lance picked his mug up with one hand, scratching Kosmo's ear again with the other, and continued, "Actually it was fun. Kosmo's pretty good company, and he's a great listener."

"Well, he's not much of a talker," Keith said matter of factly. He couldn't help wondering just what the hell Lance could've even been saying to Kosmo that he would describe him as a good listener. Keith ran a hand subconsciously through his hair and said, "No really, though. That was thoughtful of you, I appreciate it. You already know Kosmo appreciates it."

"Any time," Lance said. He took a sip from his tea, pushing himself up to sit on top of the counter behind him. After giving Kosmo an almost suspicious nod, he turned to Keith and said, "So what're you up to today?"

Keith gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Wrong answer," Lance said. "Your answer should have been, 'I'm playing nostalgic video games in the rec room with Lance and Pidge.'"

There he was again, going and figuring out exactly what it was Keith wanted, without Keith having to say a word. And honestly it was much better that Lance suggested they hang out, because while he had left his room with the direct purpose of spending time with his friends--it had taken a little longer than it maybe should have, but that word was beginning to feel right--he'd had absolutely no clue what he wanted to do with them. He'd never been the biggest fan of video games, but he figured it could be fun with Lance and Pidge around.

Keith felt the familiar tug at his cheek that meant he wanted to smile, and this time he he didn't work so hard to suppress it. He nodded, more to himself than to Lance, and answered, "I'm  _beating_ Lance and Pidge at nostalgic video games in the rec room."

"Is that a challenge I hear?" Lance said, his face lighting up a little, like he hadn't been expecting Keith to agree to the invitation. Which was honestly fair. Keith did spend time with the others, it was bound to happen when you lived in the same ship and were a team of pilots flying five lion robots that turned into one giant robot; but he did ditch a lot of the leisure activities they did, opting to spend time on his own, usually training. Lance hopped off the counter and he set his mug down behind him. "Them's fighting words in my country."

Keith narrowed his eyes at the mischievous glint in Lance's eyes. He cracked his knuckles and said, "Alright. Let's fight."

Which was evidently the reply that Lance had been hoping for, because a grin stretched out across his face. He put one foot out in front of him, turning to Keith and saying, "Race you to the rec room."

"You're on."

Lance didn't wait a tic before dashing out of the kitchen and into the hallways, his full mug of tea forgotten on the kitchen counter. Keith started immediately after him, nearly running right into the doorway in his eagerness to get out of the room. He was aware of Kosmo bounding excitedly down the hall at his side.

Like most of Keith and Lance's competitions, there was no real winner.

Halfway down one hallway Lance had actually shoved one of the MFE pilots out his way in his eagerness to get where he was going, laughing an apology over his shoulder in a way that had no right to be as cute as it was. Then Keith had taken a turn too fast and bumped smack into someone trying to round it, almost knocking both himself and them over, but managing to catch himself just in time. It did have the effect, however, of putting Lance in the lead. Which was where Lance would have stayed, had he not glanced over his shoulder to make some mocking remark, only to smack into a wall when he wasn't looking.

Eventually they both came storming into the rec room at top speed, neither of them able to slow down enough to stop before reaching the couch. The result was that they both slammed into the back of it full force, sending them falling forward and spilling first onto the cushions of the couch, and then in Lance's case, onto the floor in front of it.

Keith let out a groan, maneuvering himself (with no small effort) into a sitting position on the cushions. Lance looked for a moment like he'd somehow lost his balance despite already being on the floor, but then got comfortable in his place on the carpet, sitting up to use the cushion behind him as an armrest. Kosmo appeared a tic later, laying down on the floor at Keith's feet.

"Guys, what the quiznack," Pidge said from where she'd apparently been sitting in the middle of that exact couch the whole time. Explained why that cushion had felt so sharp, it was apparently an elbow. But Pidge didn't even look away from the screen she was staring at when she said it, pressing buttons rapidly on some video game controller or other.

"Did you see who got here first?" Lance asked, a dramatic sense of urgency in his tone.

"Wasn't looking."

"That's okay," Keith said, smirking slightly as he knew exactly the response his answer would get him. He settled a little more comfortably into the cushions and said, "We both know it was me."

"In your dreams! It was totally me. A tie  _at best_."

Pidge finally looked up at them when she finished whatever level it was she'd been playing, glancing first over at Keith on the cushions next to her, then down at where Lance was sitting on the floor. She raised a single eyebrow and asked, "You invite Keith to our gaming session?" Lance just nodded, and Pidge added, "Does Keith even play video games?"

"I've played a few," Keith said, maybe a little more defensively than he needed to.

"Alright," Pidge said with a shrug.

Then he was being handed a controller, and Pidge and Lance were explaining the rules of the game they were going to be playing. Luckily it was one Keith had played before, if a very long time ago. And the control seemed simple enough after Lance told him what all of the buttons did.

After the system had gotten set up Pidge maneuvered them to the menu. It looked like some sort of fighting game.

She scrolled the toggle down through the different options. 1 v 1. 2 v 2. Multiplayer. Battle Royale. She selected the last one, and it moved into a loading screen. While it buffered she said, "Okay remember, you have unlimited lives. Player with the most kills at the end of the countdown wins."

"Which will be me," Lance and Keith said in unison.

"You're both morons."

They laughed and the loading screen switched abruptly to the game. The setting for this match looked like one of Saturn's rings, in which the players could hop around between the different sized asteroids and chunks of ice. Keith didn't know enough about astrophysics to say for sure, but he had the feeling the graphics in the game were fairly unrealistic. Still, he had more important concerns. First of which being kicking Lance's ass at this game.

He'd only taken two steps before he died.

"What the hell?"

"Sharpshooter!" Lance crowed through his own laughter. Then his avatar promptly vanished from the screen as Pidge hit him with some sort of throwing star, and Lance's laughter abruptly cut off to say, "Pidge! You backstabber!"

"Actually, she got you in the chest."

"You know what I mean!"

Keith bit back his laugh, focussing on figuring out the controls to take out the missile launcher from his inventory. He somehow wound up with a machine gun instead, which was moderately less cool, but ammo was ammo and he couldn't stand still for long if he didn't want Lance to shoot him again. He sent his avatar surging forward, leaping over onto one of the smaller ice chunks hovering nearby to dodge one of Pidge's throwing stars. It flew past and hit Lance instead, and Lance let out a string of swears as his avatar regenerated.

Keith spun his character around, frantically holding down the fire button and not even bothering to aim. He was rewarded with five points when a number of his bullets connected with Pidge's avatar, and she disappeared from the screen in an over dramatic and highly unrealistic explosion.

"Whoo! Take that, Pidge!"

He was distracted from his victory holler as Lance's character dropped down onto the ice chunk next to him--how did he even get over there so fast?--and stabbed Keith with a sword he didn't even know Lance had. In a near perfect imitation of Keith's tone a few tics ago, Lance pumped one fist in the air and said, "Whoo! Take  _that_ , Keith!"

Which was punctuated by two small sneezes, vaguely reminiscent of a kitten's. Pidge and Keith both said, "Bless you."

"Thank you," Lance said. Then, without missing a beat, "Time to die."

After they got the hang of the controls better, it took longer for each of them to die. Keith found out there was a block and shield button, both of which he mostly ignored anyway. But the crouch and duck buttons ended up coming in handy; even if he did die once because he dodged too quickly and somehow wound up stumbling off the edge of an asteroid, plummeting to the gaseous planet beneath them. Once again, his avatar perished in a fiery explosion. He got the idea they exploded no matter how they died, and resisted the urge to laugh.

Eventually, despite their previous ongoing competition, Lance and Keith wound up teaming up against Pidge, on the premise she was 'just too damned skilled.' Pidge, it seemed, fully welcomed the challenge.

"You think the two of you can stop me?" Pidge said, scoffing for show. It didn't really work though, because she smiling while she did it.

"Yes," they answered in unison, as Keith's avatar jumped down from an asteroid above her to start firing the machine gun in random bursts at Pidge. The distraction seemed to suffice, as Pidge was so absorbed in dodging Keith's attacks that she didn't even notice Lance equipping the sniper riffle from his items catalogue. He took a tic to aim, then out of the corner of his eye Keith saw Lance press the button to fire twice.

He was just thinking that two shots was out of character, considering Lance took every chance to boast about his aimso he must have known he'd make the shot, when his own character burst into flames alongside Pidge's. "Lance, we were supposed to be a team!"

"It was an accident?" Lance tried.

"You have perfect aim!" Keith and Pidge both shouted in unison, shooting mirrored glares down at Lance's position on the floor. 

"Huh," Lance said. He had his characteristic shit-eating grin written across his face, but something in his expression told Keith that their comment had meant something to Lance. Then he shrugged, turning his attention back to the screen in front of them and saying, "Guess I do."

Keith rolled his eyes despite the affectionate grin on his face, returning his focus to the game with renewed focus. He'd be damned if he let that boy beat him at this game just because he happened to be drop dead gorgeous, and have an adorable laugh. It just wasn't going to happen. Keith managed to dodge just in time to avoid being hit by Pidge's hand gun, then he leapt onto a chunk of ice and charged towards Lance in a more zigzagged pattern.

As his character ran he said, "Pidge! We need our revenge, cover me!"

"Oh, it's on!" Lance said. Before promptly dying.

"With all that confidence," Pidge said, and Keith didn't even have to look at her to see the smug grin on her face. "We sure managed to kill you pretty quiznacking quick."

"I let you do that. To spare your fragile egos."

"I'll show you fragile!"

"Go loose, Pidge!"

They played like that for the next--well, Keith actually wasn't sure how long. He lost track of time after about the third round, at which point all three of them had won one, so they just had to keep playing until a real winner was evident. Then, despite how competitive all three of them were, they all lost track of the score and came to the ruling that they had to start the count over again. Play at least three more rounds. "Y'know," Lance said. "Just to be sure."

In fact, Keith wasn't sure how long they even would've kept on going, they were having so much fun. But eventually they all had to put down the controllers when Shiro and Allura came strolling into the rec room. They stood there silently for a few tics while Keith and the others ignored them, then both cleared their throats in a distinctly parental sort of tone.

With a huff, Pidge paused the game, setting her controller on the coffee table in front of her. Keith and Lance followed suit.

"Having fun, you three?" Shiro asked with a slight eyebrow raise, the hint of a smile in his expression.

"Absolutely not," Keith said.

"If that's true it's only 'cause me and Pidge are kicking your ass."

"I literally  _just_ blew you up, Lance!"

"Lucky shot, and you know it."

"Anyways," Allura said, clapping her hands together to regain their attention before Keith could reply. "We're stopping for a little break at another Space Mall--the Atlas crew hasn't had a chance to see one yet, and they were very intrigued. We thought you all might like to join the landing party."

Lance was out of his seat in an instant, and Pidge was scrambling to free herself from the blanket nest she'd created on the couch.

"Count me in!" They both shouted in unison, clambering towards the door and out of the rec room. Keith blinked as they disappeared and he heard another faint sneeze from the hallway. Then he shrugged and moved to get up off the couch as well. He made his way towards the door at a much more reasonable speed, however, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets while he walked. He said, "Yeah I guess I'm in."

"Great!" Shiro said. "I'll go grab Hunk, and meet you guys down there...You haven't seen Hunk around, have you?"

"In the kitchens."

"Thanks."

\--

The group walked around the Space Mall together for a little while; Coran, Allura, Romelle, Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and Keith (and Kosmo tagging along.) But their group was too big to last just wandering the whole building, and eventually they all split up. First Coran and Allura went off together to investigate an intergalactic flower shop. Then Hunk and Pidge spotted a little technological store on the end of one of the aisles and promptly ran off, Keith imagined they would be in there forever. Which left him, Lance, and Shiro.

"So, what exactly do we do on a Space Mall outing?" Shiro asked, looking around at the little stores and vendors surrounding them with a slight hint of awe in his gaze.

"Oh, right you didn't come with us last time!" Lance said, remembering at the same time as Keith but being much louder about it. In typical Lance fashion. He glanced around them for a few tics and said, "Well last time we all got chased out by security, so I don't think we were really doing it right."

"They thought we were pirates, to be fair," Keith said, chuckling slightly at the memory.

Everyone--not the least of which Keith himself--had been so confused when Lance came back aboard the Castle with a literal live cow. After everything they'd been through it didn't seem like the most random, weird experience to happen now. In fact, Keith doubted he'd bat an eye if it happened now. But that didn't make the memory any less amusing. Especially not now that it was contrasted with the baffled expression on Shiro's face.

Lance must've caught the look, too, because he was hiding a laugh behind his hand. Shiro spluttered momentarily before saying, "Why did they think you were pirates?"

"Coran gave us pirate outfits," Lance answered. He said it completely nonchalantly, but Keith got the impression it was deliberately to vague to confuse Shiro even further, just because that expression was priceless.

After a few tics of just looking at them with his eyebrows raised, Shiro just ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. "Nevermind. You two wanna find something to eat around here?"

"Sure."

"I could eat," Lance said, over another, slightly louder sneeze.

"Do you have allergies or something?" Keith asked with a slight frown.

"I dunno."

"If you do, it must be something aboard the Atlas," Shiro said, folding his arms over his chest. "You've been sneezing since Shymala. They probably have meds for it back on the ship, if you want."

"It's fine."

That settled, the three of them set off down the aisles in search of the food court. From what they could tell from the directory on the wall, which was written in a language they couldn't read, the food courts were all on the floor above them. Which meant first they'd have to find some sort of elevator, or whatever this Space Mall's equivalent was. While they walked Shiro said, "Does Kosmo look cleaner?"

"Lance gave him a bath," Keith said.

"Doesn't he look so pretty?" Lance said, leaning past Keith to look over at where Kosmo was walking by his side, shooting a fond smile towards the wolf. With the action his fingers brushed lightly against Keith's before flinching away. Then he nudged Keith with his elbow and said, " _Someone_ needs to groom him more."

"I groom him enough," Keith said. "Besides, what do you think he would do in the wild? Shampoo and condition daily?"

"God no!" And for a brief foolish moment Keith thought Lance was going to concede that point. Instead Lance said, in one of the more offended tones Keith had heard before, "Daily? That's so bad for your hair! You'll strip of it's natural oils!"

Keith just smacked Lance in the shoulder, doing his best to disguise his chuckle as a sigh. He pretended not to notice the way Shiro was watching them, with that knowing smile on his face.

When they eventually made it to the food courts, it took them another twenty dobashes to all decide on a place that looked good. The lines weren't terrible, although there was a bit of a wait at every restaurant. Keith found he didn't really mind waiting in line, though, when he was standing next to Lance the whole time. Sure they were bickering the whole time, but it was the playful friendly bickering that Keith had grown accustomed to, and not any actual fighting. None of the insults they shot at each other had any bite to them; in fact, in a way, they almost seemed affectionate.

Then, trays of food in hand, they found an empty table and all sat down around it.

Lance nearly slipped out of his chair when he went to sit down, managing to catch himself before actually falling. It only caught Keith's attention because the chairs weren't even shaped weird compared to Earth chairs. He figured that was probably why Shiro asked, "You alright there, Lance?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, just got a little dizzy for a sec," Lance said, waving a hand as if waving the question away. He cleared his throat and said, looking at the food trays on the table, "What even is this?"

"I have no clue," Shiro said, smiling.

"Food," Keith said, going with the smart-ass route. Then, after poking the gelatin like substance on the plate in front of him with a three-pronged fork he added, "I hope?"

He couldn't help but feel the slightest swell of pride when Lance laughed at that.

"Is it..." Shiro started, trailing off to pick up his fork from the table and poke at it the same as Keith had. He glanced over at them and then back down at the tray of unknown substance before saying, "Is it moving?"

Lance and Keith both quickly turned to look down at their own trays, then turning to inspect Shiro's. Keith couldn't really be sure if whatever 'food' they had ordered was moving on its own, or if it just appeared to be because of it's jell-o like texture, and being prodded by forks. As if it would tell him anything at all, Keith poked his meal again. "I don't...is it?"

"In retrospect, I don't think I'm all that hungry," Lance said, looking faintly nauseous.

"Seconded," Shiro answered.

"Cowards," Keith found himself saying, despite also having absolutely no desire to put that substance on his plate anywhere near his mouth. He pushed his tray a little away from himself. He was slightly concerned whatever it was would jump off the plate when he did, but instead it just jiggled and stayed put.

Lance said, "Y'know, I bet there's lots of cool alien junk in those shops to check out."

"Good idea."

Leaving the three trays of mysterious glob behind them on the table, they got up out of their chairs and started down the nearest aisle. They spotted a shop that looked like a little toy store, and all wandered in through the open doorway.

The room was well lit, and there were objects whizzing all around. A couple of pinwheels, or items similar to pinwheels anyway, hung from one wall, their blades spinning in a translucent rainbow of different colors. Lance's attention was immediately caught by something in the front left corner, because he darted away from Shiro and Keith without word to go inspect whatever the hell it was he saw.

Keith thought about following him to see what he was looking at, but he was stopped when Shiro asked, "You making any headway there?"

"What are you talking about?"

Shiro nodded towards Lance. Keith raised an eyebrow at him, hoping the look would sufficiently convey the 'this again?' that he didn't feel like saying. It looked like it worked. Shiro shrugged and said, "I'm just saying, he could've gone off with Hunk and Pidge, or Allura and Romelle."

"They weren't going anywhere interesting," Keith pointed out. Then, "Besides, you're here, too. Point invalid."

"It's not me he's been smiling at like that."

"You're an asshole."

Whatever smug response Shiro was about to offer was cut off when Lance turned over his shoulder to shout, "Hey, Keith! Come check this out!"

"Hey, Keith," Shiro repeated in a low whisper, wagging his eyebrows obnoxiously at Keith as he turned to go inspect something on the opposite wall. Keith never felt more like he had a big brother than in that moment. He half-heartedly flipped him off before heading to go see what it was Lance wanted.

"What is it?"

Lance held out a little figurine towards Keith with a grin. It looked like a little toy shark, which was only weird until Keith saw the sign on the wall saying the section they were standing in was Earth Trinkets. Leave it to Lance to find the Earth stuff in an entire mall full of alien stuff.

"A shark?" Keith said skeptically.

"It gets better," Lance said, his grin widening. He held the toy up to Keith's face, then squeezed the sides of the shark. When he did, a plastic leg ejected from the shark's mouth, hitting Keith square in the nose. "Kick."

It took a tremendous amount of effort on Keith's part to keep a straight face.

Lance seemed to preoccupied in laughing at his own shenanigan to even notice that Keith wasn't laughing yet. He just kept making the shark toy kick Keith in the nose, progressively laughing harder each time until he literally had to stop laughing just to breath. Keith shook his head as, under his breath, Lance just whispered "Kick," before slipping right back into his laughter.

Which was what sent Keith over the edge and then, despite it only being moderately funny, Keith was laughing right along with him.

Tossing the toy back into the bin, Lance turned to inspect the row of shelves a little ways off, tugging at Keith's elbow slightly to get him to follow. "Hey wait a tic, where'd Shiro go?"

"Over here," Shiro's voice answered from somewhere on the other side of the store.

"Well get over he--" Lance started to shout back, before pausing, a slight frown etched into his features. He glanced over at Keith and said, "D'you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Besides the various trinkets whistling and beeping around the room and the faint music playing over the stereo system, it was dead quiet.

"That static," Lance said, like it should be obvious. There was definitely no static. His next sentence was punctuated by another, slightly louder sneeze when he said, "It's really loud. You don't hear that?"

Keith took a closer look at Lance then, and he was faintly aware of his own eyes widening in shock. How had he not noticed anything sooner? Lance looked paler than usual, and there was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead--Keith had attributed it to the lighting or something equally innocuous, but now he was starting to worry. Maybe all that sneezing wasn't allergies after all? He called, "Hey, Shiro?"

Lance took a half step in the direction Shiro's voice had come from a moment before, but his knees buckled or something because he started to fall. Keith was just barely able to catch him, both hands under Lance's armpits to pull him back up. "Lance? You okay?

With a slight chuckle Lance said, "I think I might be a little sick, now that you mention it."

He sneezed again, and when his hand came away from covering his mouth Keith noticed specks of red sprinkled across his skin. Keith had never even  _heard_ of someone sneezing blood before; coughing sure. He glanced over his shoulder and shouted again, "Shiro! Get over here!"

"Relax, I'm comi--" Shiro stopped mid step as he rounded the corner, gaze settling on them. He only froze for half a tic before springing into action towards them, brow furrowed in concern. "What happened?" He clapped a hand on Lance's shoulder, peering around at his face, searching for Keith didn't know what. When he didn't get a response other than a noncommittal groan he looked across Lance to make eye contact with Keith, and it certainly didn't make Keith feel any calmer to see the concern in Shiro's eyes. "Keith, what happened?"

"I don't know! He was fine, and then he wasn't," Keith said, unhelpfully. He was too worried to be helpful. 

"Astute observation, buddy," Lance said before stumbling over again.

With both Shiro and Keith already standing attentively next to him, it was pretty easy to stop him from actually falling. Shiro sounded an awful lot like a concerned parent--not helped by the way he put the back of his hand to Lance's forehead to check for a fever--when he asked, "Lance have you been feeling sick?"

"A little queasy," Lance admitted. "I thought it was nothing. It is nothing, I'm fine."

"Lance, if I let go of you, you'll fall over," Keith said matter of factly.

Lance matched his gaze and said simply, "Then don't let go."

As if it were the simplest thing in the galaxy.

Still, Keith's only answer was, "I won't."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Shiro pressed. He looked away from Lance momentarily, scanning the shop around them. Keith had no idea what he was looking for until he followed Shiro's gaze and spotted a little chair sitting by the check out counter. He didn't even have to say anything, he just gave Keith a nod and they started towards the chair.

Lance felt unnervingly similar to a life sized ragdoll when Keith and Shiro lowered him into the chair. "Okay, just gimme a tic to get my balance back, I'll be fine."

"Do Space Mall's have EMS?" Shiro asked.

"Would they even know how to help? There's not exactly a lot of people from Earth out here."

"They'll be faster than a team from the Atlas, though."

"Guys, it's not that big a deal," Lance said, which was unconvincing at best, as it was cut off by a sudden sneezing fit that evolved into harsh sounding coughs.

Keith and Shiro both ignored him. Shiro said, "You talk to the shop owner about the mall's EMS, I'll comm the Atlas and then the rest of the team."

Keith gave a small nod.

He was reluctant to leave Lance's side, despite the distance to the shop owner being a whopping three steps, but he jumped into action the tic Shiro finished talking. The shop owner was talking to someone already, but Keith didn't really feel guilty about shoving past them, asking, "How do I contact this place's Emergency Response System?"

"Is everything okay?" the shop owner answered, like a fucking idiot.

"Yes, I wanna talk to EMS to ask about their day," Keith said sourly. He shouldn't have, there probably wasn't time for sarcasm. "Just tell me how to contact them!"

"I'll call them, I'll call them," they answered placatingly, reaching for a comm device next to what Keith assumed was their register. "What's the nature of your emergency?"

"My friend is sick."

They repeated the information into the receiver, then relayed for whoever was on the comms, "Species?"

"What?" Keith stumbled momentarily, not anticipating the question. Then, "Uh, Human. From Earth."

"Human, from Earth," they repeat into the phone.

For a moment then there's silence. In the background Keith can hear Shiro talking into his own comm, from the sounds of it he's already gotten through to the Atlas. Below that he can hear the faint hum of voices through the shop owners reciever, just not well enough to have even the faintest idea what they're saying. Eventually they hang up, then look back to Keith and say, "They'll send a response team, but knowledge on Humans is limited, so they don't know how much they can do."

Keith gave a nod and practically sprinted back to Lance without another word to the surprisingly calm shop owner.

Lance was still sitting in the chair they'd left him in, now leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. It only took Keith one look to see that he'd coughed up more blood, albeit not a lot. (He figured coughing up any blood was a lot, actually.) Shiro was crouching to the side with one hand on Lance's shoulder, going back and forth between talking into his comm and talking to Lance.

"We're in a shop on the second floor," Shiro said. "No, second floor...Yes...We don't know."

He seemed occupied over the radio, so Keith took over the job of communicating with Lance. It was the best he could do to feel useful, to be completely honest. He got down on one knee in front of the chair and put what he hoped was a reassuring hand on Lance's arm. "Hey, buddy. How you doing?"

"I told you, I'm fine," Lance said, without much conviction.

"Right, that's why your hands are all bloody," Keith pointed out. From the shocked way Lance looked down at his hands, he hadn't even been aware he was coughing up blood. "Shiro's talking with the Atlas's med team, and the mall's EMS is on the way."

Lance opened his mouth to respond, but he stopped himself before he could get a word out, hands flying up to cover his mouth. For a moment Keith thought he was going to throw up or something, but after a couple of tics he lowered his hands, dropping his head down between his knees with a pitiful sound that wasn't quite a groan, but Keith couldn't think of another word for it. But to be fair, Keith couldn't really think about much of anything at the moment. Lance took in a couple of deep steadying breaths before saying, "It wasn't this bad before."

"I should hope not."

"Thought it was just a cold or something."

"You should've told us."

"Didn't want you to worry."

Keith rolled his eyes at the sheer irony. With a slight sigh he said, "And we're so carefree now."

Lance chuckled quietly, but the laugh quickly turned into another short burst of sneezes and coughs. Between those he said, or at least tried his best to say, "I'm sorry."

Because of course Lance would apologize for worrying his friends when he was coughing up blood, because of course he cared more about them being slightly inconvenienced than he did about his own well being. What an asshole. Keith glanced over at Shiro, who was just pocketing his comm, and raised a single eyebrow in silent questioning. Shiro read the look and answered almost immediately, "Atlas med team is on the way down. So is the rest of the team, Allura and Coran should get here first, they were the closest."

"This is a lotta trouble over nothing, I'm fine. See," Lance said, somehow managing to sit up and then going to stand. He only got about a half step, maybe less, away from the chair before he started to collapse again. Thankfully, Keith had seen it coming and was able to catch him before he hurt himself.

"Totally fine," Keith said flatly.

"Uh, Keith. You might wanna step back a little."

"Lance, you're not fine."

"I know, that's kinda why--" Lance cut himself off, pushing away from Keith with retching sound terrible enough to make Keith a little queasy just from hearing it. He dropped to his knees on the shop floor, one hand stretched out to brace himself on the tile and the other wrapped around his stomach. What came out was a lot more red than vomit was supposed to be, that part Keith was sure of. Lance said softly, "Heh, guess I'm not so fine."

"When did this happen?" 

Keith turned when he heard Allura's voice from the shop's entryway. She, Coran, and Romelle were hurrying over, matching looks of concerned panics donning their expressions. Just behind them, two uniformed humanoids that Keith assumed belonged to the EMS team were sprinting towards the shop. Allura gasped, one hand flying over her mouth. "Oh, dear. But he was fine when we got here."

"It was pretty sudden," Keith said, to both her and the inquisitive EMS officers.

"When did he start vomiting?" One of the officers asked. "Is that not the color of human blood?"

"It is," Shiro said. "And he's only thrown up the once, but he was coughing up blood before."

When Shiro seemed to have taken over answering their questions, Keith knelt down next to Lance, the second EMS officer on his other side. He put a hand out to rub Lance's shoulder, tentative at first, but the paramedic didn't tell him not to so he figured it was okay. The paramedic, a pink humanoid with two green ponytails, said in a sweet but firm voice, "I'm Kyra, with EMS. Do you think you can answer some questions for me?"

"Only if they're not math related," Lance answered weakly. Somehow still cracking jokes. "I suck at math."

Kyra didn't seem to get that he was kidding, because she gave a confused glance up at Keith before looking back down at Lance with a slight shake of her head. "Uh, no math. Can you tell me what symptoms you're experiencing?"

"You mean besides the blood barf?" Lance said. Kyra nodded, a patient gesture for him to continue. "Pretty sure the room's spinning, for one. Also the migraine. And, uh, sneezing? Is that a symptom?"

"He was hearing static earlier," Keith said, in case it was important.

And oh no, if Kyra's widening eyes was anything to go by, it was really important. Her ponytails swung around as she turned back to Lance, a renewed sense of urgency in her tone as she confirmed, "You were hearing static? Are you still hearing it now?"

"Yeah," Lance said, followed by another series of coughs and heaves. He didn't actually throw anything up this time, though. Small victories, right? He sat up ever so slightly, bringing his left arm up to meet the other wrapped around his stomach, and looked at Kyra with his head tilted slightly to the side. "Why, wha's the static mean? 'S that bad or something?"

"Tiff, he's hearing static," Kyra said, snapping to get her partner's attention.

The other paramedic, Tiff apparently, turned away from where they were interrogating Shiro, eyes almost as wide as Kyra's. Likewise, all three of the Alteans gasped, Romelle taking a terrified step backward. Keith got the feeling the static was, as Lance put it, bad or something. He looked back and forth between the paramedics and Coran and Allura; the medics were kneeling in front of Lance giving him directions, not to sit up any further, asking him where he'd been in the past few of whatever time measurement Keith didn't even know. Lance did his best to answer.

Keith looked up at Allura. "Allura, what is it? What does the static mean?"

"I can't believe it would be...Oh but he has been sneezing, hasn't he?" Allura said to Coran, completely unhelpfully. "Everyone said sneezing was normal for humans, I didn't think anything of it."

"We still don't know for sure," Coran said, not sounding convinced himself.

"What else could it be?"

"Somebody tell me what's wrong with him!" Keith said, just as the team of paramedics from the Atlas crew burst in through the door. They were carrying first aid kits and a possibly very necessary gurney was in tow behind them. They scanned the shop quickly before spotting the scene by the register--the shop owner had long disappeared, Keith didn't particularly care where to--and starting towards them.

Tiff rose to greet them, and they exchanged some hushed phrases that Keith couldn't hear before he caught onto the words, "Could be fatal."

From the way Lance's shoulder tensed up under Keith's hand, he'd overheard that much, too. He cleared his throat and glanced up from where he'd been staring at the multicolored tile a little ways away and said, "Sorry what?"

Tiff froze, realizing Lance had heard them, and slowly turned to look down at him. They offered, "Well we don't know for sure. A human's never gotten it before, and we can't even know it's what you have without proper tests. But...yes, it could..uh. It could potentially be fatal."

The atmosphere in the room shifted with that out in the open. Where it had been almost too fast paced to process, everything suddenly froze. It stretched on that way for what felt like forever, but couldn't have actually been more than a few tics, before the Atlas paramedics sprang into action, lunging forward to maneuver Lance onto the gurney they'd brought. "We'll get him up to our medbay. Can your team transfer all the data you have on the virus up to us?"

"It might take a while, but yes," Kyra said.

"Let me come with you!" Allura said quickly. "I can't know for sure, but I might be able to help."

"You can follow, but don't touch the gurney. Everyone else, a shuttle will be down shortly to bring you back aboard."

And with that they were gone; before Keith even had a chance to say a word. He started after the gurney when they disappeared through the doorway, but he was stopped when Shiro but a firm hand on his chest. His tone was compassionate when he said, "There's nothing you can do, just let the medics do their jobs."

\--

The Paladins and Coran were gathered in Lance's room, next to his doctor, the moment he was deemed not contagious. The Atlas med crew had found some combination of drugs to temporarily stop the vomiting, but they didn't know how long it would last, and Lance had apparently developed a migraine. The current theory was that it was set off by whatever static it was he was hearing. He looked half dead already in the hospital bed, two IVs connected to his right arm and another machine connect to his left wrist, getting the readout on his vitals.

"So what exactly is it Lance has?" Shiro asked. He was doing his best to do his Team Leader voice, but Keith caught the quiver in his tone. Not that he was one to judge, at the moment.

"It's called the Mori Mori Virus," Allura said, folding her arms over her chest with a frown. "It originated on Altea, but spread throughout the systems rather quickly. It's not terribly contagious per se, but there aren't many species immune to it, which made it easy for it to travel."

There was a grim look on her face the whole time she talked, and Keith felt his own expression growing grimmer and grimmer. He gave Lance the tiniest of smiles when he caught him staring with an unreadable look on his face, hoping vainly that it would be some comfort. What comfort was a smile to a dying man? No, Lance wasn't dying. Not on Keith's watch. He put his hands on his hips and said, "Okay, so how did Lance get it?"

"Shymala was one of the planets that had it," Coran said. As if that explained anything.

"We were at Shymala like twelve quintents ago," Pidge pointed out. "Wouldn't we have noticed something sooner?"

"Not if Lance was pretending he wasn't sick," Keith said sourly. He felt bad right after he said it. Making passive aggressive comments felt kind of wrong with Lance in a hospital bed, vomiting blood.

"It takes a while to foster anyway," Romelle said, her voice just barely a squeak. "And he has been sneezing since Shymala, that's one of the first symptoms."

"Is anyone else on the team or onboard at risk? How did Lance get it?" The doctor asked. Because he had to.

Allura nodded, then shook her head. She said, "Depends. Has anyone else had...er...mouth to mouth contact with either a Shymalite or Lance? That's typically how it's transferred."

Everyone shook their heads negative, and Allura breathed a visible sigh of relief. A look of concern flashed across Lance's eyes and he moved to sit up, before realizing he was too weak to do it and collapsing back into his pillows. All the attention in the room returned to Lance, and he looked from Coran to Allura, saying, "Luxa didn't seem sick, though. She's okay, isn't she?"

At any other time Keith was sure he would've felt jealous hearing that. Right now he didn't have it in him. He was too busy worrying about Lance. Too busy being in awe of Lance. For all he knew he was laying in his death bed right now, and he was worried about somebody else's health. Wanted to make sure someone else, a stranger he'd only met once, was doing okay. Keith doubted he'd ever met a more selfless person in his life. Right now he kind of hated it. Couldn't Lance worry about his own wellbeing for once in his life?

"Princess Luxa is in full health," Coran reported.

"She could be a Typhoid Mary, though," Pidge said.

"We should warn her," Lance said.

"I already have," Allura said reassuringly, pushing Lance's hair back from his face. "They should be able to contain the outbreak, now that they have knowledge of it. They didn't report any other cases to me."

Lance smiled tiredly, his eyes sliding shut with ease. "Guess this isn't all bad, then."

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"They know now, no one else'll get sick," Lance mumbled. "This sucks."

"Understatement of the decaphebe," Hunk said, and the corners of Lance's lips tilted up into a not quite smile. He did his best to keep a joking tone in his voice for Lance's sake, but when Keith looked at him he saw the tears brimming in his eyes that he was clearly trying to keep back. Stepping forward ever so slightly, Hunk gave Lance's wrist a light pat and said, "Hey, I'll make you some of those garlic knots when you get better. How does that sound?"

"You're an angel," Lance said. His voice was getting progressively softer.

The doctor stepped forward then, clearing his throat to get everyone's attention. With all their focus on Lance, it took the poor guy a few tries to manage to get everyone to tear their gazes away from him. Once he had their attention the doctor said, "It's best we let him rest. I'm summon any of you with any updates."

Everyone turned hesitantly back to Lance. It was clear the Atlas doctor wasn't the real authority there; they wanted Lance's permission to leave if they were going to. If any of them thought anything like Keith, they were secretly desperately hoping that Lance would tell them to stay with him. Instead he said, without opening his eyes and without energy, "Awwww bye guys. Try not to miss me too much."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Keith tried to joke. The taunt felt like dirt on his tongue.

Lance said bye again and they all turned to go, starting towards the door at reluctant paces. Keith had only just turned to leave when Lance's hand was on his wrist; his grip was so weak it couldn't have stopped a leaf from blowing away in the breeze, but it felt like a vice to Keith all the same, holding him in place. When he turned back to see what Lance wanted, Lance's eyes were open again, but they were directed at where the doctor stood at the foot of the bed, silently inspecting the medical chart with an obvious frown. "Hey, doc? Keith can stay a bit, can't he?"

The doctor looked skeptical. Nonetheless, he said, "For a bit."

"Thanks," Lance said. His grip on Keith's wrist slipped down until their fingers were ever so slightly intertwined, and Keith gave his hand what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. Lance coughed into his free elbow, then lifted his head up to look at the doctor, who was standing there watching them curiously. He gave an innocent looking smile, or the best smile he could manage with the pain Keith imagined he was in, and added, "Can we get a minute?"

The doctor raised an eyebrow, gaze flicking back and forth between Keith and Lance as he considered it. Then he shrugged and said, "I guess it couldn't hurt. I'll be in the hall if you need anything."

He started out of the room, then stopped at the doorway, looking over his shoulder to add, "Keith, call me if his cough gets worse. I want to know immediately."

"You got it," Keith said, and the doctor vanished out the door. The doors hadn't so much as switched shut behind him before Keith turned to Lance, not letting go of his hand as he dropped into the empty chair beside the hospital bed. He let the silence hover between them for a few tics, but when Lance made no effort to break it he had to ask, "What's this about?"

"Just didn't want you to go, tha's all," Lance said.

A few more tics of silence. Then Keith cleared his throat, then gave Lance's hand another little squeeze and said, the hint of a question in his voice, "You're, uh....You're holding my hand."

"I don't wanna fall."

As if it were the simplest thing in the galaxy.

Keith opened his mouth to tell him he wouldn't fall, being in a hospital bed and all, but he shut his mouth and tightened his grip ever so slightly when he realized that wasn't what Lance meant. He frowned and looked down at the tiled floor in front of him, only just noticing the specks of red decorating the tip of his boots. Keith swallowed a nonexistent lump in his throat before saying, "I won't let you."

He pretended not to notice the hitch in Lance's breath. Or the way he kept opening his mouth and closing it again or glancing over in Keith's direction, like there was something he wanted to say, but couldn't quite bring himself to.

Eventually Lance just sighed, apparently resigning himself to not saying whatever it was he wanted to say, and gave Keith's hand a weak squeeze.

They sat there in silence for a long time then. Keith's comm buzzed every now and then with updates from Hunk, telling him they had as many people working on a cure as possible. It was apparently an even more frustrating process than they'd been expecting. The only treatments in existence, treatments not cures, couldn't even be applied to humans, on account of being almost as fatal as the Mori Mori Virus. They were starting from square one.

After awhile the doctor slipped back into the room, checking Lance's vitals and typing something up on the med chart. Lance had fallen asleep a good half varga ago. In fact, he was so far gone he didn't even notice when the nurse entered, sticking a needle in his arm to take a blood sample. Keith kept his grip on Lance's hand the whole time.

\--

He didn't remember falling asleep, but at one point he found himself waking up. Still in the uncomfortable chair next to the hospital bed, still holding Lance's hand. A faint beeping as ambient noise in the background, and a number of different updates waiting for him to read on his comm. None of them looked good; they had no cure, just answers as to what wasn't a cure.

Keith put his comm back into his pocket and glanced over at Lance to see how he was doing. He immediately wished he hadn't when he saw the trail of blood dripping out of his nose, and the almost purple bags that had formed under his tired eyes.

He panicked at first, and had just opened his mouth to call for a nurse when one walked in, carrying a metal tray of something in her arms. She spotted Keith, then glanced over at Lance, before looking back to Keith. She gave him a tired smile and the tiniest of nods. "We know," she said, gesturing to the nosebleed. "It happened last night, too. The Alteans tell us it's a common symptom. Means the virus is progressing...But so's the cure! The entire Holt family is working on it, plus the Alteans, and a number of our own scientists."

Keith didn't answer, he just turned to look back at Lance.

The nurse walked over, dabbing the blood away from Lance's nose with a napkin before reaching for her tray again. She picked up a needle with some unidentifiable substance in it, and went to inject it in the vein at the Lance's unoccupied wrist. When she caught Keith watching her she explained, "Pain meds."

Once she was done she left, making no farewells to Keith and adding something to Lance's med chart just before she left. Keith's comm buzzed again, flashing Shiro's name. It had mostly been Shiro and Hunk sending Keith updates, so his thumb hovered over the screen a moment before opening it, not sure he wanted to read another message saying there had been no developments. Instead, he got a message that read:  _Pidge and Matt narrowed it down to a theory about some rare plasma. They're working w/ Coran and Romelle to find out where we could find it_

Keith nodded to himself before typing out a quick  _thx_ and pocketing the comm again.

He knew Lance was about to wake up before it actually happened, as the beeping connected to his heart rate almost doubled. A half a tic later Lance jolted awake, doubling forward in another coughing fit. In just the past quintent Keith had seen much worse, but that didn't stop the sight of little flecks of blood scattering across the stark white sheets from making his breath stop.

"You want some water?" Keith was already holding the chilled glass from the table in Lance's direction.

Lance shook his head. "Not thirsty."

"Throwing up dehydrates you."

"Isn't that what these  _two_ IVs are for?"

"Just drink the water."

Lance puffed out a sigh and begrudgingly accepted the glass from Keith, downing half of its contents in one gulp. Not thirsty, sure. He passed the glass back to Keith, who did his best not to notice how shakey Lance's hand was when he took it and set it back down on the table. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Seven."

"Oh," Lance said. "Thought I slept longer."

"In the morning," Keith amended.

"Ohhh," Lance said, nodding slightly. Whatever his internal clock was telling him, that answer made more sense to it. "Wait, you didn't sleep in that chair, did you?"

"Not on purpose," Keith said. Which was true. Not that he had ever had any intention of leaving Lance's side last night, but he'd meant to stay awake. He could keep a better eye on things that way, and besides, that chair really wasn't all that comfortable. He couldn't quite read the look that Lance was giving him, so he gave up trying to decipher it and asked instead, "How're you feeling?"

"How d'you want me to answer that?"

"Honestly."

Lance glanced over at him, as if sizing him up. If Keith knew Lance, he was considering whether or not to actual be honest with him. He seemed to come to the (reasonable) conclusion that Keith would be able to tell if he was lying, and not tolerate that shit at all. So he gave a lazy attempt at a shrug and relaxed further back into his marshmallow-like pillows. He took in a deep breath that didn't sound all to stable, then let out a sigh and said, "Honestly, okay. Uh, not good? A little bit like I have an alien disease that's making my body want to eject my internal organs out my esophagus--Oh wait, that's 'cause I do."

Keith frowned. "This isn't funny, Lance."

"I know that." He did. That much was obvious. By now Keith knew that Lance's jokes and quips weren't always because he found something funny; he was just as likely to make a wisecrack to make the people around him feel better, or to deflect from subjects that scared him. Keith wasn't sure which one this was. Lance chuckled and said, "Check me out. I survive an intergalactic war and then some alien Mono on steroids gets me."

"You're not dying."

Keith didn't even think about it before he said it, he didn't even remember his brain telling his mouth to form the words. It was equal parts an order, a wish, and a statement of fact. He wasn't going to let Lance die. At the moment he couldn't think of a whole lot he could do to stop it, but that had never really stopped him before, not when he set his mind to something.

For whatever reason, Lance chose to ignore that. Instead electing to ask, "How're the others doing?"

"They're keeping me posted on finding a cure," Keith said with a small nod. "Hunk keeps saying they know what it's  _not_. And the Holts think we're looking for some kind of plasma."

"No, I mean how are they  _doing_."

"Oh." Damn, for a second Keith forgot. He was talking to Lance. Of course he wasn't asking about the others because of their progress in finding a cure, he was asking because  _he_ was worried about  _them_. That asshole was more worried about his illness because of how it would affect his friends than he was how it would affect him. Keith tried not to be mad, he didn't entirely succeed. He took in a breath and answered, "Not good. Every time I've seen Hunk his eyes have been red. Romelle keeps trying to visit you, but she can't come two steps in before she runs away. Pidge has been kind of snappy, and Allura is...focussed. Coran has been spam messaging me for updates. And Shiro's...well, Shiro."

Lance bit his lip, like he'd been expecting each of those answers but was still surprised by them. He was quiet a moment, then he turned to look at Keith with his eyebrows raised and asked, "What about you?"

"How am I?" Keith asked, biting back a wry laugh he knew Lance wouldn't appreciate. Lance nodded earnestly. Bless his heart, he actually cared about the answer. Keith looked back at him, but he could only meet that gaze for a few tics before it became too much and he had to look away. He didn't bite back the laugh this time as he replied, "How do you want me to answer?"

Lance just rolled his eyes, the hint of a chuckle turning into a couple small coughs. Keith decided to answer honestly, because what the hell, Lance was honest with him. He said, "Well one of the most important people in my life is lying in a hospital bed coughing up blood, and that asshole is asking how  _I_ am."

"Fair enough."

\--

At one point, without much or any discussion, the minute Keith was supposed to stay in Lance's room turned into vargas. Three, to be exact. Over which Keith really only left to go to the bathroom, and once or twice to take a quick nap after everyone yelled at him enough about it. Kosmo slept a few times at Keith's feet, and even once curled up on the mattress next to Lance. He seemed almost as worried as Keith was. As often as Lance wanted him to, Keith held his hand. It was a little unsettling, how much that feather light grip could feel like a bear trap, or an anchor.

Over time, Lance's condition only seemed to get worse. His fever was so high at one point the doctors had to go the old fashioned route of submerging him in a tub of ice. Keith lost count of the number of white sheets that had to be thrown out, upon being stained with increasingly dark red vomit. Actually he didn't lose count--it was four. Lance's hand in his grew increasingly colder. He got quieter, the things he said made less sense. And to top it all off, they still had nothing on the cure.

After a particularly intense coughing fit, Lance dropped back against his pillows and gave Keith's hand a little squeeze, like he was trying to get his attention. When Keith glanced over he was so still Keith thought he'd fallen back asleep, but then a moment later Lance's voice said, "If I do..."

"If you do what?" Keith frowned.

"Y'know..." Lance said, making a vague gesture with the hand not attached to Keith's. He couldn't fault Lance for not wanting to use the word. That made it more real, and neither of them wanted it to be realer than it already was. Still, the possibility was there. Hovering in the corner somewhere, watching over them as time went on like an oppressive shadow. Lance cleared his throat and went on, "If I do. I..." He paused, taking in a deep steadying breath. Keith's first impression was that he was having trouble breathing again, but it became clear he was steeling himself to say something that was hard to say. "In case I do, I wanna tell you something."

"Nope," Keith said, cutting him off before he could get another syllable out. "No, no, no. We're not having this talk. Because you're not going anywhere. You're not going anywhere, so you're not giving me the Farewell Speech."

Because Lance couldn't  _leave_ if he didn't say goodbye, right?

Lance insisted, "But if I do--"

"You're not. I'm not letting you. The Holts will find a cure--"

"Can you just let me talk, Keith!" Lance interrupted him with a burst of energy that Keith hadn't even thought him capable of at this point. His fingers intertwined tighter around Keith's and he sat up, visibly wincing at the effort it took and turning to look Keith in the face. There was an iron determination in his features, even behind the fatigue and the something akin to fear. "I don't want it to be true any more than you, but I...It's fatal, Keith. And I don't wanna die without saying it out loud, so please. Please can you just let me have this, and listen."

Keith stared at him, speechless. Which was kind of what Lance wanted, anyway, he supposed. They just blinked at each other for a few tics, and then Keith nodded wordlessly.

"Thanks," Lance said, breathing out a heavy sigh. His whole body seemed to go limp with the breath; it had probably taken even more energy to yell at Keith than he'd initially thought. He suddenly felt a little worse for having interrupted him. Lance looked down at where Kosmo was asleep at his feet momentarily, mumbling, "It's just that. I want you to know I love you."

And Keith thought he was speechless before.

Lance nodded, looking back up at Keith, the faintest hint of a smile on his tired face. He looked...young. Definitely too young, to be laying in that bed right now. But he spoke with renewed confidence and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I love you. Like, a lot."

"You love...me?"

"No shit, Mullet, that's what I just said," Lance said, slumping back against his pillows again. His nose scrunched like he was about to sneeze, but the moment passed and he shook his head. It almost seemed that, with the statement said, his energy was starting to peter off again. His head rolled to the side to look at Keith, and he said, "I love you, Keith Kogane. I mean, I love all of you. But with you it's different. 'Cause--"

Keith didn't get to find out what it was Lance was going to say at the end of that sentence. He didn't get to find out because of three interruptions, all happening one after the other. First Lance jolted up in bed, leaning over the side Keith wasn't on with another series of coughs and heaves, and Keith jumped out of his chair without thinking. As if there was anything he could do. Then one of the monitors that was hooked up to Lance's vitals started to beep--Keith didn't know what it meant, just that it was bad. And finally, the doors to the room burst open.

He was expecting the doctors, given the beeping that was steadily growing in volume. Instead he saw Allura and Shiro, frantic looks on both their faces, and both of them out of breath, like they'd sprinted across the ship to get there. They probably had. Shiro said, "We're going back to the Space Mall."

Keith looked back and forth between Lance and Shiro. He wasn't sure which of the two to focus on. Looking at Lance, he asked Shiro, "Why?"

"The plasma Pidge was looking for," Allura said, faltering near the end of her sentence to look over at Lance, who was still coughing. It looked like it took a great amount of effort for her to tear her gaze away and look back to Keith. "Shiro says you three found some sort of food goo in the food courts, and it should contain a chemical that, when mixed with enough iron, should neutralize the pathogen in Lance's blood."

"You found a cure?"

"We found a cure."

"What are we waiting for? Start back towards the Mall!"

"We already are," Allura said placatingly.

"Whoah, 'lura, you didn't tell me you had a twin," Lance said, sitting up and looking over at the doorway. His nose was bleeding again, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand, as if that would fix anything. He also seemed to be swaying in place, as if he was about to lose balance just sitting there. "Keith, you too? How long's there been two of you?"

Keith turned over his shoulder and said, "Get the doctor."

Shiro gave a small nod, then disappeared back out the door. The door hadn't even swung shut all the way before Lance moved to get up out of bed, swinging his legs over the side before Keith could stop him.

"It's fine, I'll get him," he was saying. Which was obviously ridiculous. He put his hands on the mattress behind him as leverage to push himself up, then froze, bringing up his palm to inspect it as if it were some alien limb he'd just noticed attached to him. The crack in his voice made Keith want to cry as Lance said, "Keith?" Before collapsing, slipping off the edge of the mattress and right onto the floor with a loud  _thud_ , the IV stands being pulled down along with him, clattering to the floor.

"Lance!" Keith was at his side in an instant, not even caring about stepping his shoes in the puddle of blood on the floor there. He knelt down next to Lance, hands instinctively flying to Lance's face. "Lance!"

His eyelids hovered half-open for a tic as he mumbled, "Just don't let go."

\--

When they reached the Space Mall again they wasted no time in sprinting to the food courts, shoving past a reptilian looking couple to get to the counter before someone else, and ordering a vast quantity of whatever that substance was they had ordered last time. They barely even bothered to pay once it was handed to them, taking the trays and then dashing to the shuttles to get back to the Atlas as quickly as was physically possible.

Pidge's dad was waiting in the shuttle dock when they got back, and he took the tray from them without word, starting for the lab. Not knowing what else to do, Keith followed. He was vaguely aware of Shiro running at his side.

The lab had already been prepped for them, all the steps taken that they could take without possessing the plasma they needed. Once Pidge's dad gave her the tray of weird gunk from the food court, she snatched it and dumped the entire thing into what looked like a pot of boiling water. There were a number of steps that followed, but Keith's understanding of chemistry was limited at best, and it honestly all felt like a hazy blur in Keith's memory anyway. He didn't even remember for sure who was in the lab and who wasn't.

He did remember Pidge's victory screech when the test sample showed positive in the computer analysis; and he remembered snatching the vial she held out and sprinting out of the lab and towards Lance's hospital room faster than he'd ever run before in his life.

The doctor took the vial from him the second he showed up, wasting no time in injecting it into one of the IVs feeding into Lance's arm.

\--

Waiting was hell.

Keith had been evicted from Lance's room, so he sat on the floor in the hallway instead, his head in his hands. He wasn't sure how long he was there before Shiro took a seat next to him, and a moment later Hunk was at his other side. Then Pidge sat across the hall, Allura and Romelle at either side. Coran leaned against the wall next to them. Keith looked up at them momentarily before dropping his head back into his hands.

"He's going to be okay," Shiro said.

"I know."

"Doesn't quite feel real, does it?"

"I know."

Keith sighed, running his hands through his hair and looking up at the rest of the team. For the first time since the diagnosis, Keith remembered these people were all probably just as concerned about Lance as him. Even Lance had considered their feelings, on his potential deathbed, but Keith had had bigger concerns. And he'd spent the whole time moping about it while they actually did something. He tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling, sighing once again. Then, because he had to say it just to make it feel real, "He's going to be okay."

\--

The doctors said Lance had to stay in his room in med bay for a good two weeks more. A dosage of the cure would have to be administered two more times, according to their estimate, double checked by all three of the Holts and four more scientists on board. And after that they wanted to keep him to be monitored. But after one varga they let Lance have visitors again: the entire team had been camped out in the hallway the whole time before the doctors told them they could see him. Hovering in the doorway the doctor said, "Just take it slow. He's going to be tired, a lot of excitement won't be good for him."

Everyone nodded, and was on their feet moving into the room as soon as they were able to be. Once they were through the doors they all whisper-shouted in unison, "Lance!"

"Hey guys," Lance said, or rather, mumbled. The doctor had been right, he looked tired. He only seemed to be able to keep his eyes open halfway, and even that seemed to be too much to him. Still, he looked significantly better than he had the last time Keith saw him. His nose wasn't bleeding, for one, and some of the color had returned to his face. He even tried to smile at them. "Miss me?"

"Not really," Pidge said, earning a slight laugh. She took a seat in Keith's chair--when had it become Keith's chair. "How ya feeling?"

"Sleepy," he said matter of factly. "How about you?"

"Happy."

Lance gave a small nod, as if to say he was happy too. Keith was sure if he had the energy to be he was. He glanced over at Pidge for a moment, catching the tears brimming at the corners of her eyes before Lance said, "Thanks. For saving my life."

"No biggie."

Lance laughed at a joke Keith, and by the looks of it everyone else, didn't quite get. Then he said, "No biggie. It's funny cuz you're short."

And where Pidge would normally bristle at teasing comments about her height, or fire back with similar lightweight insults, this time she just threw her head back and laughed. As if it were the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Lance's smile only grew when he looked over at Pidge, a simple fondness in his eyes. It occurred to Keith that, not too long ago, Lance was probably thinking he would never get a chance to hear that laugh again.

Keith tried not to think too much about that. He tried to focus on the moment in front of him. Lance was there, he wasn't coughing or vomiting up blood, he was telling jokes. Terrible unfunny jokes.

It occurred to Keith that, not too long ago, he was starting to think he would never get a chance to hear those terrible jokes again.

And in that moment, Keith started to see a little bit of the humor that Pidge saw. He found himself smiling at Lance despite himself. He was sure the rest of the team must have been having similar revelations, because slowly, they all started to laugh, too. One by one, until everyone in the room was just standing there, laughing like a bunch of idiots. Even Lance.

"I love you guys," Lance said as his laugh petered off, shaking his head.

"We love you, Lance," Allura said. Her smile was two parts affection and one part sad. After a tic she added, "But don't you dare go scaring us like that ever again."

"Damn, guess I gotta find something else to do this Sunday," Lance joked, and Allura rolled her eyes. He turned towards Keith, rolling with the joke, and asked, "Hey, Mullet, what're you doing Sunday?"

Keith gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Wrong answer," Lance said. "The correct answer was, playing board games with Lance so he doesn't die of boredom in this hospital room."

"Okay. I'm beating Lance at board games so he doesn't die of boredom in this hospital room."

Lance gave Keith a grin that felt like it was meant to convey something more than just amusement, like the two of them were in on some secret that the rest of the room was not privy to. A moment later it was gone, leaving Keith to wonder if he'd just read to much into it. Either way he didn't care, because not too long ago he was starting to think he'd never see that smile again. But now?

Now he had all the time in the universe to make Lance smile again.

 


	4. The One Where Kosmo Plays Matchmaker

"Well have you talked about it?"

"We haven't really talked at all," Keith said with a huff, not even bothering to hide the disappointment at that fact from his voice. "He's still recovering. Besides, we haven't really got any time alone since."

Which was fair. Lance was popular on a normal day, and in the past week he'd almost died. And it was a really big almost. He couldn't fault the others for wanting to spend time with him, and he wouldn't want to. Still, it might be nice to get just one moment alone with Lance. Kind of because he wanted to talk, but really, he just missed his company.

"You sure that's not just an excuse?" Shiro asked, raising a knowing eyebrow.

Keith groaned, leaning his head back against the wall behind him, possibly a little over dramatic. He hated how well Shiro could see through someone's bullshit. "It's not an excuse if it's true."

"I'm thinking maybe part of you doesn't really want to talk about it."

"No shit." Keith didn't wait for longer than a few tics to add, "Sorry, Shiro."

"Have you thought about why?"

"Why what?"

"Why you're avoiding the conversation."

Keith frowned.

He hadn't really thought about it, beyond coming up with excuses. He'd gotten good at excuses. Maybe it was because, if they talked about it, it would be real. And he didn't have a clear answer already. Lance had said it, sure, but he said he loved  _all of them._ It could have meant anything. But then why bother singling Keith out? Was it because they fought more than he fought with other team members, or was it...something else?

Even if it was what Keith wanted it to be, he couldn't bring it up. Lance hadn't exactly been thinking clearly when he said it--vomiting blood and being on pain meds didn't exactly help a person's state of mind. And besides, they both thought he was dying. It just wasn't fair, to hold a living man to his dying confession.

After awhile Keith shrugged and figured he didn't need to answer the question. Shiro didn't want the answer anyway, he just wanted Keith to have it.

They just sat there in silence for awhile after that. A few familiar faces walked down the hallway they were sitting in, murmuring greetings as they passed. It occurred to Keith the hallway floor wasn't the most private place to have a conversation. Not that it mattered.

"He has to stop doing that," Keith said decidedly.

"Almost dying?"

"No. Well, that too. Definitely." Keith shook his head, drawing his knees in towards his chest.

Shiro nodded in understanding and said, a hint of a question in his voice, "Saying he loves you."

Keith just mirrored the nod. He breathed out another sigh and said softly, "I don't know how I'm ever supposed to get over him."

\--

Despite his best efforts not to, Keith found himself swinging by Lance's hospital room later that day. He didn't go right there after talking with Shiro. No, first he spent some time in the training room working off some frustration--be it with himself, Shiro's stupid/good advice, or Lance's vague, wishy washy confessions he wasn't sure. Then he spent some time in the kitchen, poking at microwaved chicken with a fork while he debated whether or not to talk to Lance, and what he was supposed to say if he did. "Hey, you were high on pain meds and vomiting blood and you said you loved me, what's the deal?" Didn't exactly roll of the tongue all that well.

Still, after all that time delaying and overthinking, Keith's feet led him to Lance's door.

The door was open. Keith felt awkward.

While Lance had been sick Keith had spent almost all of his time in that room, he didn't want Lance to be alone. But after the cure had come along, and Lance was allowed visitors, Keith only ever really dropped in with the rest of the group, and he tended to hover in the background. He felt bad, for being so absent. But Lance probably didn't even notice, what with all the attention he'd been getting from everyone else. (And that literally meant everyone. The other paladins, the nurses, the quiznacking janitor. Lance was good at making friends.)

Hovering in the doorway, Keith knocked lightly against the frame.

Lance...wasn't in bed. He was standing next to the bed, trying to stack a bouquet of flowers and a bunch of cards on top of a couple of old board game boxes, a folded up blanket, and a yellow sweater that Keith recognized as belonging to Hunk. It looked like he was trying to carry it all at once, but he almost dropped it when Keith knocked.

He looked up with a grin on his face, one that faltered when he saw it was Keith standing there. Keith tried not to read too much into that. Lance opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, apparently changing his mind. He looked back down at the things he was trying to carry, then back up at Keith and said, "Hey."

"Hey," Keith said. "This a bad time?"

"Dr. Vogel gave me the okay to move back to my quarters today," Lance said with a shrug.

It took Keith a second to even register who Dr. Vogel was. The whole time Keith had been there and he'd never bothered to learn the guy's name, he was just 'the doctor.' Quiznack. Lance was being discharged today and not only did Keith not even hear about it, he'd only stopped by to visit about two times. Technically three, but that first time Lance had been asleep. He wasn't sure how much of being sick Lance remembered, maybe as far as Lance knew Keith hadn't cared. He couldn't believe that, though. Could he?

"Oh," Keith said, like an idiot.

"Yeah."

Keith nodded towards the pile of stuff Lance was holding and said, "Need some help?"

"Think I got it, thanks."

No, this wasn't awkward at all. Why did Keith convince himself to come down here, again? Right, Shiro wanted them to talk. Keith wasn't good at the whole talking thing. At a loss for what else to say to keep the conversation going he asked, "You sure?"

"I think I can carry a couple board games, yeah," Lance said, his shoulder brushing Keith's as he squeezed past him out of the hospital room. And okay, at first Keith thought maybe he was just reading things wrong, but he definitely knew now that Lance was...what was he? Mad? Upset? Well maybe he didn't definitely know anything. But there was something off there. 

Keith just stood there for a second, wondering what was going on. Then he shook his head, and half sprinted down the hall to catch up with Lance. When he did catch up, Lance just shot him a confused look. Keith said, "Lance, what's wrong? I mean, did I do or say something?"

"No, I said something," Lance muttered, low enough that Keith almost didn't catch it.

"What?"

"Nothing, forget about it," Lance said, shaking his head. They rounded a corner in the hallway and made it about halfway down in silence, which was a little too unusual for Lance, before he finally stopped walking to turn and face Keith. Breathing out a heavy sigh, Lance said, "It's just. Okay, here's the thing. I know you're mad at me or whatever, but I don't think you--I mean, I thought I was dying. So I don't think it's really fair...It's not. It's not fair for you to be mad at me, especially if you're gonna avoid me instead of telling me. And avoiding me worked this week 'cause I was stuck in one room, but you can't avoid me forever so just tell me. Tell me you're mad."

Keith frowned. "Lance what are you talking about?"

"One of the nurses told me you wouldn't leave my room, when I was sick," Lance said.

"On what planet does that mean I'm mad?"

"Shut up and let me finish." Lance shook his head and started down the hallway again, only getting a couple more steps before coming to another stop. "You were there the whole time, but after they found the cure and I started to get better, you barely even visited me. And when you did, you said like two words."

"You think I'm mad at you for almost dying?" Keith asked, incredulous.

He supposed for a little while he was mad about it, but mostly because Lance had symptoms for awhile before he said anything. Which was dumb. If he'd told them sooner, maybe they could've caught it sooner. Maybe the whole incident could've been less painful for every party. But it wasn't Lance's fault he'd gotten sick, how could Keith even be mad about that? That was just ridiculous.

"What? No!" Lance said, in a voice that reflected the same level of incredulity Keith had. Then he frowned, looking back at Keith and asking, "Why? Is that why you're mad at me?"

"Lance, I'm not mad at you."

"It's not my fau--" Lance started, ready to argue. He trailed off, though, when he registered what Keith had told him. Keith supposed he couldn't blame him for thinking he was mad. He hadn't visited as much as he could've, and he hadn't talked much when he did. And he had plenty of excuses for his behavior, none of which were totally accurate, but none of which were that he was mad at Lance. "You're not mad?"

"Usually? In general? Yeah, kinda. At you? No." The answer earned a small chuckle, though Keith didn't know if it was at the joke or simply relief that Keith wasn't mad. "Why'd you think I was mad?"

"Well, cause..." Lance said, fading off. He answered, Keith knew that, but whatever he said had been too quiet for Keith to hear. Keith just gave him a look, and Lance shook his head, then laughed. "Well if you're not mad it sounds stupid."

"Which is different from most of what you say how?"

"Shut up!"

"I can't," Keith said, both of them laughing as they resumed their walk down the halls. A nurse walked down the hall past them and gave them a smile, but Lance didn't seem to notice her as he was too busy trying to figure out how to elbow Keith in the ribs without dropping his things. "Not until you tell me what you thought I was mad about."

"I didn't think you were mad," Lance said.

"Dude."

"Okay, I thought you were mad 'cause I...No, it's stupid!"

"Just tell me, or I'll start guessing. And I'm a really  _bad_ guesser."

"Fine, fine. I just," Lance said. Then, spouting the words out quickly as if that would either make Keith not hear them or make it make more sense, he said, "I thought you were mad because I said I loved you."

Keith blinked.

He wasn't sure how to answer that. Shiro seemed to think they should have a conversation, Keith wasn't so sure having conversations was their strong suit. Still, here Lance was bringing it up. Which meant that he did remember saying it, so he must have at least had some sort of clear head. But Keith wasn't that stupid. He'd already gotten lucky with them finding a cure for the stupid virus, and the galaxy so rarely liked to give Keith a win. What were the odds he'd get two?

But Lance had brought it up. That meant, at least, Keith had a chance to subtly try to gauge what kind of love Lance meant.  _I love all of you_. Did he have a reason for singling Keith out when he'd said it?

Keith hoped he hadn't let the silence stretch on for too long--he really wasn't sure if he'd only thought about it a tic, or long enough to make Lance second guess his thoughts. He hoped it was the former--when he said, "Why would I be mad about that? I mean, you love the whole team, right?"

As he waited for Lance to reply there was a tiny little chant of  _Correct me. Correct me. Correct me_ in the back of Keith's head that he couldn't quite suppress.

Lance opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again, choosing to nod instead. He looked away from Keith to look out at the hallway stretching out in front of them instead, clearing his throat and saying, "Yeah. Duh."

And Keith was glad Lance was looking in front of him, because it made the disappointment a little easier to cover up. 

* * *

The paladins all had dinner together that night. Hunk had cooked something called, fricasé de pollo--a chicken recipe he'd apparently, somehow, found the time to learn from Lance's grandfather when they were back on Earth--and garlic knots, to celebrate Lance being discharged from the hospital wing.

Lance sat in between Hunk and Pidge. Something that Keith didn't even think about until the back part of his brain asked him why Lance still thought he was mad at him after they'd already talked about it. Keith hadn't noticed it until Lance changed it up to sit with Hunk and Pidge, but Lance usually took the seat next to Keith when they had meals as a group. Of course Lance didn't still think Keith was mad at him.

"Hunk, have I told you lately how much I love you?" Lance said, grinning when he realized what it was Hunk had cooked.

"You have, but you can tell me again if you want."

"Hunk, bro, I love you."

It was possible that Hunk's smile was even bigger than Lance's was. Hunk was always happy when they got the team together for a group meal, it was something that happened far less now that they lived with a whole crew aboard the Atlas instead of by themselves on the Castle of Lions. But the family style meal had to pale in comparison to Hunk's best friend sitting there next to him, alive to eat the meal and make stupid jokes and love his friends and be a general overall perfect asshole. Of course Hunk was smiling. They all were.

Hunk waved a hand then and added, "Seriously though, it's your grandpa's recipe. All I did was follow it."

"You say it like it's so simple, you should'a seen the kitchen when he tried to teach me and Rachel," Lance said, scrunching up his face and shaking his head to emphasize the point.

"Well that's just because you and Rachel are disasters," Pidge said, but she also had that stupid smile on her face so it took some of the cut away from the insult.

"I prefer the term hot mess."

"You're the only one who calls you that."

"To my face, maybe. But you guys totally talk about how great I am behind my back. Right, Keith?"

"You're ridiculous," Keith answered, which was neither a confirmation nor a denial.

Lance shrugged. "Well how would I know, it's behind my back."

The food, as usual, was amazing. The team, as usual, enjoyed it over a combination of childish bickering, and choruses of laughter. And it was while Coran was telling them some wild story involving an old boyfriend of his, a Balmera, and what sounded like an Earth elephant, that Keith's gaze travelled back across the table to Lance. Lance, watching Coran tell his story with complete interest. Laughing at all the right places, asking all the right questions. Keith figured Coran could've been telling any story at all and Lance would've listened just the same; it wasn't the story Lance cared about, it was his friends.

He loved them.

He loved all of them, and that included Keith. Maybe not in the way Keith wanted it to be, and maybe not the way Keith loved him, but just because Lance hadn't meant what Keith wanted him to mean when he told him he loved him didn't make it meaningless. It was possible Keith just had to relearn a way to love Lance.

* * *

After dinner, Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and Keith all made their way to the rec room. Lance had promised his family he would video call them, but after that they were all supposed to play more video games and watch some space movies. Keith wasn't sure if that meant Earth movies about space, or movies about anything from space, or movies from space about space. Keith didn't watch a lot of movies.

Pidge and Hunk sat down on the couch while Lance took the sofa and took out a comm. Keith was thinking about sitting down next to Lance, when Pidge called him over to help them choose a game, and he wound up sitting on the couch with them instead.

After a couple of tics of ringing sounds, a hologram that Keith recognized as Rachel appeared above Lance's comm. Her hair was in a messy bun and, though the hologram was only of her shoulders and up, Keith thought she was wearing pajamas. She looked a lot like Lance, especially with the green face mask she was wearing.

"Hey! It's just you? I thought Marco and Luis were there."

"What, I'm not good enough?"

"No."

Rachel laughed at that, the hologram flickering ever so slightly.

"Hey, Keith! Which character are you playing as?" Hunk's voice distracted Keith from his unintentional eavesdropping, and he turned to look at the screen. He hadn't even been listening while they selected a game, he wasn't sure what they were playing, let alone what characters there were. It wasn't hard to tell from the two selected ones out of the character map who was who: Hunk was playing as the princess character in the yellow dress, and Pidge was the little green dinosaur looking thing. None of the characters, Keith realized, looked like they made any sense.

He scanned the screen for a tic, trying to decide which one would give him the best advantage. It might have been an easier decision if he'd listened to what game they were playing. Did he need someone fast or strong? Did their outfits give them different armor, or were they just for the aesthetic of the game? Was he maybe overthinking this just a little bit?

After some consideration, Keith took the remote that Pidge had passed him and used to select what looked like a skeleton version of Pidge's green dinosaur. With a feigned disinterest he said, "I'll take this skeleton, I guess."

"His name is Dry Bones, Keith, call him his name," Lance cut in, momentarily looking up from his conversation with Rachel to give Keith a disapproving head shake.

"I'll take this Dry Bones, I guess," Keith amended, with the same tone.

"He's hopeless," he caught Lance telling Rachel, before they picked up whatever conversation they'd been having before.

From the sounds of it, Rachel was asking how space was, and Lance was avoiding answering. Keith wondered if anyone had contacted Lance's family about the virus or not. Certainly none of the paladins had, and Keith was fairly certain that the medical staff had been too preoccupied with creating a cure to ask about next of kin. Or maybe they'd found the information in the system and hadn't bothered asking.

"Oh, come on! You make it sound so boring," Rachel said, throwing her hands up overdramatically. "Nothing interesting happens in space? What'd you do this week?"

"I was in...the...hospital wing," Lance said. Then hurriedly adding, "How was your week? Did the surf competition go well?"

"Lance!" Was the only word that Keith was able to understand in Rachel's answer. It was followed by a string of Spanish that did not sound happy, and if the guilty wince on Lance's face was anything to go by was not happy.

Keith tried in vain to understand what Rachel was saying--he'd been trying to learn Spanish himself so he could surprise Lance, he knew how homesick Lance could get and thought it might help to have someone to speak his family's language with--but she was speaking way too fast, and Keith only had a small grasp of the language anyway. All he could really tell was that now he at least had an answer as to whether or not anyone told Lance's family. No.

Lance, of course, had to go and answer back in Spanish too. Those two really knew how to thwart Keith's unintentional eavesdropping.

He felt a little less bad about it, however, when he turned back to Hunk and Pidge to find them watching Lance's holo-call as well. Pidge sighed and said, "Why'd he have to be bilingual? This sounds like good drama, I want in."

"From the little I've picked up knowing Lance," Hunk said. "I can tell you, Rachel is not happy."

"We got that, Hunk," Keith said.

"I can hear you guys," Lance said, shooting a look across the room at them. Fortunately, he didn't seem mad. Just mildly annoyed, and kind of amused. He turned back to Rachel and said with a grin, "Hey, my friends are nosey, you have to speak English now so they can eavesdrop."

"Lance! You didn't tell me your friends were listening!" Rachel cut her own angry rant off halfway, and the speed with which her features changed to a warm and friendly smile almost gave Keith whiplash. She said, "Tell them I said hi. Hi, Lance's friends!"

"Hi Rachel," the three of them echoed back, stifling laughter.

"Lance talks a lot about you," Rachel said. "Especially Kei--"

"And that's enough of that, bye Rachel! Te amo! Hablamos leugo!" Lance interrupted, switching the com off and tossing it to the side on the sofa cushion. That over with, he moved over to sit on the couch with the rest of them, plopping down in between Keith and Pidge. There wasn't really space there, but he made space. He snagged a remote off of the coffee table and looked up at the screen, then seemed to realize what the game was for the first time, despite having corrected Keith on character names a tic ago. "We have Mario Kart 108? Awesome."

As it turned out, Keith sucked at Mario Kart. Not that he'd admit as much out loud.

To be fair, the other three had obviously played the game before, meanwhile Keith was new to it. And he was still better than Hunk, so there. Besides, it didn't matter if he could drive an animation of a motorcycle, since he was pretty damn skilled at driving a real one, if he does say so himself. And that was way cooler than being good at video games anyway, shut up Lance.

* * *

Keith was used to bad dreams. He'd had them all his life; things that had already happened, things had already happened but they ended differently, things he didn't want to happen.

They weren't usually about him getting hurt, usually it was people in his life. This one wasn't any different. He could've predicted the stupid dream too, that was the sad part. The Holts never found a cure, Lance died. It turned out the virus was more contagious, the rest of the team died. Because his stupid brain couldn't at least be creative when it insisted on tormenting him.

As willing as Keith was to make fun of his brain for a lack of creativity, he still woke up from the dream with a sudden jolt, sweating and breathing heavily. 

"Keith?"

"Lance?" Keith jumped a second time, he'd thought he'd been reasonably in assuming he was alone in his own room but apparently not. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could just make out Lance's silhouette sitting on the floor across the room. Kosmo was sitting next to him, which Keith figured probably explained everything, but he figured he should ask all the same. "What're you doing in my room?"

"I, uh..." Lance said, in a way that lead Keith to believe Lance wasn't exactly sure himself. "I think Kosmo was worried about you."

Keith shot a look over at Kosmo. The damn wolf was as bad as Shiro. He ran a hand through his hair to brush it out of his face, puffing out a heavy breath. Even he knew it was far from convincing when he said, "I'm fine."

There was a brief moment of silence. Keith was half expecting Lance to sass him for the answer, which would have been fair. Instead he was just casually asked, "Bad dream?"

"You, uh, you might say that," Keith answered.

"Clowns or midgets?"

"Well, Coran and Pidge were there," Keith said with a light chuckle. Honestly, he appreciated Lance answering with a joke. Far more than he would've appreciated being asked to talk about it, but then, Lance already knew that. It was also easier to answer with another wisecrack than it was to laugh, but he figured Lance knew that, too. Kosmo had been just a little too thoughtful when he decided to bring Lance, of all people. Keith sighed again, shooting another look over at Lance to tell him, "Sorry Kosmo woke you up, it's really not a big deal. I'm fine."

"I don't know if I believe him," Lance said, turning to Kosmo. "Kosmo?"

And yeah, it was dark, but Keith could've sworn he saw Kosmo shake his head. Everyone on this ship, Keith decided, was plotting against him. It was an accusation that was confirmed a moment later, when Kosmo decided to teleport Lance once more. Right next to Keith, in his bed. Kosmo then laid down across both of their legs, which seemed very deliberate, even for a space wolf. 

Lance, at least, seemed amused by the turn of events. He was stifling a giggle. "I didn't think he'd do  _that_ , but I think it's safe to say Kosmo's with me."

"You're both traitors," Keith grumbled. And sure, having Lance closer was making him feel a little more like this was reality and the dream was a dream. And Lance's laughter was kind of making him want to laugh too. But he wasn't about to give either of them the satisfaction.

When Lance got over his amusement at the situation, he made no move to escape from being Kosmo's pillow. Instead, he silently leaned forward so he could scratch Kosmo's ears. Keith just watched him for a few tics, waiting for him to either say something or make a move to leave. He wouldn't complain about either; this was weird, and Lance hadn't exactly put himself there. But he also didn't seem in a big hurry to go back to his room. In fact, he just seemed content sitting there petting Kosmo. Keith wasn't sure when Lance had become such good friends with his wolfdog--not that Kosmo was property, but he was friends with Keith first okay--but he wasn't sure how to feel about it.

After a little while, Keith said, "You don't have to stay, I am fine."

Lance looked over at him, head tilted slightly to the side, and considered for a tic before replying, "Would you be more fine if you had some company?"

"What d'you mean?"

"Well we all get bad dreams sometimes, man. Me and Hunk sometimes have sleepovers. It...It helps, not being alone," Lance said, shrugging his shoulders. Momentarily, Keith felt bad; he knew Shiro got nightmares, but he hadn't thought about Hunk, or Pidge, or even Lance having them. Of course, Hunk and Lance having sleepovers made perfect sense, although he hadn't known about it before. When Keith didn't answer immediately Lance added hurriedly, "I mean, I could go, too. I just, Kosmo seems to think you shouldn't be alone and, it does help, sometimes. But I could go."

"Stay," Keith said, surprising even himself. He'd thought, or hoped, he would be smart enough not to ask Lance to stay. Sure, he'd offered, but still. Keith cleared his throat and amended, "I mean, if you don't mind, I don't. I guess."

"Alright," Lance said, shrugging and shifting a little to lay down.

Keith hesitated another tic, then laid back down, admittedly feeling a little awkward. He stared up at the ceiling then said, "But if you start singing Gloria Gaynor again, I'm throwing you out of an airlock."

Lance's only response was to sing the opening line to the song, and Keith snatched an extra pillow, moving to shove it over Lance's face. Lance sang a few more muffled lyrics through the pillow before shoving it away from his face, both of them laughing. When Lance got the pillow out of Keith's hands he took a second to smack Keith with it, before tucking it under his head and settling back down. His voice was still light with a hint of laughter when Lance said, "Dolce sueños, te amo."

And Keith was sure he didn't know enough Spanish to have understood that correctly. He decided tonight wasn't the night to overthink it, though; he was too tired, and for now Lance was here. He just breathed out a chuckle and said, "I don't know if you're insulting me or saying good night, but back at ya."

"Sweet dreams," Lance said. "I told you sweet dreams."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so....this update is very late. sorry! I've been super busy, and tbh just didn't feel the same love for writing anymore for awhile (not just fanfic either, lol.) but i'm back! so if you've stuck with this story waiting for my late update, or if you just came across it, or whatever, thanks for reading what i write. your support means a lot! <3


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